Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

‘c’atholic Left circulates survey on Church life and collects the data. What could go wrong?

Posted on 3 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you know about the group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good? Are alarm bells ringing? Read about them HERE. And HERE. Sharing staff with catholics United… HERE.

This is in from the Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter):

Group steps in for US bishops, collects Vatican-requested data

WASHINGTON A Catholic nonprofit in the D.C. area is offering to collect responses from Catholics to a Vatican survey asking their opinions on church teachings on contraception, same-sex marriage and divorce. [Sure! Let them circulate the survey and then let them have the raw data. What could possibly go wrong?]
The survey was sent by the Vatican in mid-October to national bishops’ conferences around the world. An accompanying letter signed by Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri asks that the conferences distribute the poll “immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources can be received.”

But it is unclear what steps the U.S. bishops’ conference, currently headed by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, will take to pursue such an effort.

The nonprofit, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, has made a survey based on the Vatican’s questionnaire available online. [So, let’s be clear about this. The catholic Left is driving their readership to the survey, and then a catholic Left group is going to handle the data.]

Christopher Hale, a senior fellow with the group, said in an email that his organization sent a link to the survey via email to its some 30,000 members Friday morning. Within two hours, Hale said, the group had seen more than 300 responses.

“Our response has been overwhelming,” Hale said. “We’ve already hundreds of people answer the survey with beautiful or distressing stories about their experience with their local church life.”

[…]

Who can guess what happens next?

You can imagine what they might think were thousands of people to chime in saying that they want more celebrations of the older, Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. I’m just sayin’.

Posted in Biased Media Coverage, Liberals, POLLS |
50 Comments

The end of “Greater Meatloaf”

Posted on 3 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today I will say Mass using the formulary for the 4th Sunday “left over” after Epiphany.

“But Father! But Father!”, some of you in Columbia Heights may be saying, “Isn’t Epiphany in, like, January or something?”

At the end of the liturgical year with the traditional Roman calendar, there are some oddities to counting the Sundays.

As we approach the end of another liturgical year, a strange thing happens in the Church’s traditional, pre-Conciliar calendar. After the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, the Sundays left over after Epiphany, way back after Christmas, are pulled out of the freezer, warmed up and served. And “left over” is not a flippant description. In the older Missale Romanum our Sunday is “Dominca quarta quae superfuit post Epiphaniam”. Superfuit is from super-sum, which the super Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary , indicates is “to be over and above, either as a remainder or as a superfluity”.

So how can Sundays be ‘left over’?” Here is what happened.

In structuring our liturgical calendar we Christians depend on the vagaries of the moon. The date of Easter each year is fixed according to when the spring full moon occurs. Since the moon isn’t always full on the same date, the date of Easter Sunday shifts. Lent, however, has a fixed length. Thus the beginning of Lent slides around, earlier or later depending on that spring full moon. At the other end of the equation, Epiphany (the real Epiphany) is a fixed date: 6 January. Since the beginning of Lent slides around, the time between Epiphany, which begins on 14 January, and Ash Wednesday and Septuagesima (three weeks before), is longer or shorter depending on when the moon is full in the spring.

There can be many as six Sundays between Epiphany and Septuagesima which can fall from 18 January to 22 February, that is from the 2nd until the 6th Sunday after Epiphany.

Therefore, when Lent begins earlier the texts for as many as four Sundays after Epiphany slated to be celebrated up to Septuagesima must be skipped. On the other end of the Lent/Easter cycle, Pentecost also shifts its date. Pentecost is always the same number of days after the movable Easter. The twenty-four Sundays allotted after Pentecost are not enough to get us all the way to the end of the liturgical year, back around to Advent. Depending on the date of the spring full moon, there can be a gap of a several Sundays between the 22nd after Pentecost and last Sunday before Advent.

Therefore, Holy Church uses those “movable” Sundays left over after Epiphany as fillers until the final Sunday of the year, which liturgically is always the 24th Sunday after Pentecost … even if it isn’t ordinally the 24th. So, at the end of the Church’s year, in the traditional calendar, we usually get left over Sundays.

In the newer, post-Conciliar calendar the shift in the moon also changes how many Sundays of “Ordinary Time” we can squeeze in after the Christmas season ends with the Baptism of the Lord (a mystery yanked away from the Feast of Epiphany). Again, due to the shifting dates of Pentecost some of the Sundays of Ordinary Time in the middle of the calendar are blotted out by the tail end of the Easter season.

At the end of the liturgical year in the newer calendar, the last Sunday is always fixed as the 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time, celebrated as the Solemnity of Christ the King. In the older calendar Christ the King is observed on the last Sunday of October.

In the older, traditional calendar we have not only the far more interesting Septuagesima and the pre-Lent Sundays, we also have the Seasons of Epiphany and Pentecost for what is called our tempus per annum… “time through the year”. In the post-Conciliar calendar we call the tempus per annum “Ordinary Time”. “Ordinary” refers to “order” rather than “ordinariness”. Perhaps it would be better to call it “Ordinal Time”.

The Novus Ordo’s “ordered” time is split into two unequal parts. An old clerical friend of mine, dear Harold – R.I.P – called them “Greater and Lesser ‘Meatloaf’”. I preferred the traditional reckoning. Whereas in the ordinary Novus Ordo calendar we just throw the unconsumed “meatloaf” Sundays away, in the Church’s extraordinary calendar we conserve the left over Sundays in the back of the liturgical ice-box and pull them out later if needed.

Either way, as is the case with many things preserved lovingly in the refrigerator for a long time, these Sundays are green… with hope, of course.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill | Tagged ordinary time, superfuit, Time after Epiphany, Time after Pentecost
21 Comments

KENYA: Pastors want AK-47s to protect their flocks against The Religion of Peace

Posted on 3 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Jihad Watch by Robert Spencer:

Kenyan pastors ask for AK-47s to counter Islamic jihad attacks

Christianity has never opposed self-defense. “Kenyan Pastors Ask for AK-47s Amid Radical Muslim Persecution,” by Fredrick Nzwili for RNS, November 1 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

As attacks on Christians mount in Kenya’s coastal region, some evangelical pastors in the Mombasa area may no longer be willing to turn the other cheek.Worried about attacks against their churches and congregations, some pastors are asking for rifles to protect themselves from suspected Islamic extremists.

The violence intensified on Oct. 20 and 21, when two evangelical church pastors were killed inside their churches. Pastor Charles Mathole, 41, was killed Oct. 20 as he prayed inside his Vikwatani Redeemed Gospel Church. The following day, East African Pentecostal Church pastor Ibrahim Kithaka was found dead in Kilifi, about 35 miles north of Mombasa.

Christian leaders blame the attacks on increased radicalization of Muslim youth. The attacks have occurred amid protests by Muslims that they were being targeted in Nairobi’s war against terrorism.

“Our many churches are not under any protection. They do not have walls or gates. The government should issue AK-47 rifles to every church so that we can stop them from being burnt, our property from being looted and our pastors and Christians from being killed,” said Lambert Mbela, a pastor at Mathole’s church, during his funeral.

Three weeks before the latest murders, Muslim youth torched a Salvation Army church in the Majengo area in Mombasa to protest the killing of the popular Sheikh Ibrahim “Rogo” Omar and three others by unknown gunmen on Oct.4. The same church was torched last year after the murder of another prominent Muslim cleric, Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed.

Some church officials say the request for arms reflects a growing frustration with the rising insecurity, but others say the move contradicts traditional biblical teachings on nonviolence, [non-violence doesn’t mean that we are obliged to let our loved one’s be killed…] or could put churches and congregations at more risk. [?!?]

“I don’t think arming Kenyan (clerics) will ensure security,” said the Rev. Peter Karanja, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, at a news conference in Limuru, near Nairobi, on Wednesday (Oct. 30). [Perhaps he should go out to Vikwatani to take over for the pastor who was killed.]

[…]

Interfaith initiatives in the coastal region have allowed different faiths to live in relative calm, but the attacks are threatening decades of peaceful coexistence, according to the Rev. Wilybard Lagho, vicar general of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa.

“I think we need to restrengthen interreligious dialogue. The problem is in the minds, and we need to win them back,” said Lagho, calling the request for guns a shallow solution to a complex problem.

Yes, dialogue will certainly fix the problem. It always has before, right?

Some Muslim leaders, meanwhile, have backed the pastors’ call for arms but said there should be a thorough vetting of who gets a gun.“It is a good idea, but not all clerics should get the guns. Some are rogue clerics and may pose more danger to other religious leaders,” said Sheikh Juma Ngao, chairman of the Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council.

Yes, of course. It’s the Christian clerics who are the problem, not the innumerable Muslim clerics preaching jihad and hatred of the kuffar.

The storm is rising more quickly in Africa than elsewhere, but it is rising everywhere.

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice, The Religion of Peace | Tagged Kenya, radical Islam, Religion of Peace
15 Comments

IRELAND: birthrate below replacement

Posted on 2 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Does this surprise anyone? From the Iona Institute:

Irish birthrate slips below replacement level

Ireland’s birthrate has dropped below replacement level, new figures have revealed.

The figures, published yesterday in the Central Statistics Office Statistical Yearbook, show that overall, the total fertility rate, the TPFR, which is the number of children born per woman of child-bearing age fell to 2.01 from 2.04 in 2011.

This is just below 2.1, which is considered to be the rate at which a country replaces its population.

The figures also show that over a third of all births last year were outside marriage. Thirty five percent, or 25,344 of the 72,225 registered births in 2012 were outside marriage.

In 2011, 33.7pc of all births were outside marriage. In 2004, the comparable figure was 31.9.

A wealth of research suggests that children raised outside marriage fare worse emotionally, economically and educationally.

[…]

I will, in large part, blame liberal Irish priests and bishops.

If people in the wealthy West don’t give up their selfish materialism and start having babies, we may see the “annihilation of nations”.

The thousands of refugees fleeing Africa into the EU through Italy can have a new place to hang their hats, with ready made infrastructure and everything!

I direct the Irish people, and everyone else, to Benedict XVI’s Letter to the Irish Catholics HERE.

Posted in Pò sì jiù, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, The Religion of Peace | Tagged annihilation of nations, birth rate, Ireland
49 Comments

QUAERITUR: Indulgences for Poor Souls, but cemetery is locked.

Posted on 2 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I pass a Catholic cemetery to and from work every day (in fact, it is the diocesan cemetery where my spouse and I bought plots). I want to stop and say prayers for the souls in Purgatory, especially November 1 – 8.

My problem is that the times I pass it, the gates are locked. Is it permissible for the plenary indulgences to pull alongside the fence and say the prayers from there? I can easily see through the fence into the cemetery but cannot physically enter it.

Sure! Yes, you have, in fact, visited a cemetery. However. I would not just sit there in the car. Get out. Make it concrete.

That said, were a diocesan cemetery to be locked during this period when indulgences can be and should be sought… well… shame on them!

If it remains locked during this time, I would call the office of the diocese that sees to the care of cemeteries and ask about this. I would follow up with a call to the bishop’s office.

If there is some sort of personnel problem, perhaps next year volunteers can be organized to help. (Think off the top of my head.)

2 November doesn’t exactly sneak up on us, does it?

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged All Souls, indulgences, Poor Souls
9 Comments

POLL: Color of Vestments for All Souls

Posted on 2 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is a little poll about what you saw for the Mass you went to for All Souls.

Yes, I know that it is not a Holy Day of Obligation, as All Saints was (in most places… if you didn’t go to Mass, you probably have something more to confess), but a lot of people go.

So… tell us about the vestments. I have in mind Latin Church, Roman Rite here.

The combox is open.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, POLLS | Tagged All Souls, black, vestments
61 Comments

WDTPRS – 31st Ordinary Sunday: We stumble mostly by choice.

Posted on 2 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Collect for the 31st Ordinary Sunday, which was in the ancient Veronese Sacramentary, is also found in the Extraordinary Form on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost.

Omnipotens et misericors Deus, de cuius munere venit, ut tibi a fidelibus tuis digne et laudabiliter serviatur, tribue, quaesumus, nobis, ut ad promissiones tuas sine offensione curramus.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:

Almighty and merciful God, from whose gift it comes that You be served by the faithful worthily and laudably, grant us, we beseech You, that we may run toward Your promises without stumbling.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

God of power and mercy, only with your help can we offer you fitting service and praise. May we live the faith we profess and trust your promise of eternal life.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

Almighty and merciful God, by whose gift your faithful offer you right and praiseworthy service, grant, we pray, that we may hasten without stumbling to receive the things you have promised.

Munus means, first, “a service, office, post”. Synonyms are officium and ministerium. A Greek equivalent is leitourgia, a needed civic work or service one performs because he ought to for the sake of society; whence our word “liturgy”. In the New Testament munus/leitourgia points to a concepts such as taking up collections for the poor (i.e., what man does for man) and religious services (what man does for God). Munus also means “a present, gift”. Munus is a theologically loaded word, indicating among other things the three offices (tria munera) which Christ passed to His Church, the Apostles and their successors: to teach, to govern, to sanctify.

When the Lord gives us commands (and He does, e.g., love one another as I have loved you; pick up your Cross and follow me; be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect; do this in memory of me, etc.), we can sum them up in the two-fold commandment of love of God and of neighbor. All followers of Jesus have been given a two-fold munus to fulfill which reflects the three munera Christ gave to the Church’s ordained priesthood. I invite you to try an experiment. See what happens to your perception of the Collect if you make munus mean “office” rather than “gift.” While reading it, hearing it, can you keep both concepts simultaneously in mind?

Offensio (related to offendo) concerns “a striking against, a stumbling”. It is also “an offense” and “that which causes one to offend or sin” as in a lapis offensionis (a “stumbling-block” cf 1 Pet. 2:8). Offendo, by the way, can also mean “to meet by chance”.

Servio, “to serve”, is very rarely found in the passive. We must break “that it be served in reference to You” down into “that You be served”.

This Collect gives me the image of a person hurrying to fulfill a duty or command given by his master or superior. He is rushing, running. He might even be carrying a heavy burden. While dashing forward, he strives to be careful under his burden lest he stumble, fall, lose or ruin it what he carries. Isn’t this how we live our Christian vocations? God has given us something to do while in this vale of tears. When we discern God’s will and do our best to live well according to our state in life, we will experience heavy burdens. Our human nature is wounded and there is an Enemy who hates and tempts us. When we are faithful to our vocations, we receive many opportunities to participate in carrying the Cross of Jesus.

The Lord Himself told us through the Gospels that if we want to be with Him, we must participate in His Cross, even daily (Luke 9:23). During His Passion, our Lord literally carried His (and our) Cross. As He was driven by the soldiers over the uneven road, as careful as He must have been, He stumbled and fell. We stumble and fall, though not like our sinless Lord. We stumble mostly by choice.

In this Collect do we hear an echo of the petition in the Lord’s Prayer? “Lead us not into temptation.” There is a tempter out there who desires us to fall and give offense to the Lord. The Enemy places obstacles before our feet. That one we do not want to meet with, even by chance.

As we draw closer to the end of this liturgical year, Father prays that we run, rather than drag along, toward the reward of heaven. We beg God that we do so without mishap. We beg not to give offense by what we do. We ask that the road be made free of stumbling blocks for our running feet. Our Lord understands the tough road we travel. He does not abandon us when we stumble in sin.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, WDTPRS | Tagged munus, offensio, servio
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The Feeder Feed: cabinet edition

Posted on 1 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At the Met there is a marvelous cabinet that belonged to Card. Barbarini who became Urban VIII. Don’t worry about the number of tassels. The varied.

There are some whimsical depictions of birds, including a reversal of fortune! Sometime in manuscripts you will see some scribal joking wherein mice hunt the cat, etc. in imitation of formal hunting parties.

This lovely Madonna and Child by Rosselli (+1507) will warm the heart of all but the prudes out there.

There are medieval treasures from Hildesheim on display including one of the finest bronzes I have ever seen.

There is a little detail in it which I may take as the basis for a sermon.

A glorious tomb/door entrance to Holy Church, no?

And now I will have some coffee in the American wing and enjoy the view.

Posted in On the road, The Feeder Feed, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged Met, museum
3 Comments

How a saint tricked the Devil

Posted on 1 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw recently this very cool painting by Michael Pacher, a Tyroler (+1498) of St. Wolfgang. Since I didn’t know of this episode in the life of the saint, I was pretty intrigued, since this depicts an obvious moment of sacred liturgy during which Ol’ Scratch is holding the book.

A couple initial observations.

First, the Devil must be in complete agony while doing this. Good! However, the Devil must have been duped into doing this by the saint. The Enemy must have thought this was a malevolent victory of some sort, to have endured this pain and humiliation.

What’s up here?

As the story goes, St. Wolfgang was determined to build a church. Somehow, the Devil got involved and offered to help build the church and even consecrate it, provided that he, the Devil, would be able to keep the first one to cross its threshold. Fortunately, the first one across the threshold was a wolf, rather than a human being, so the Enemy lost again.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged Michael Pacher, St. Wolfgang
6 Comments

Pope Francis said Mass “ad orientem”

Posted on 1 November 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

His Holiness of our Lord, Pope Francis, recently celebrated Holy Mass ad orientem versus at the tomb of Bl. John Paul II which is in the Vatican Basilica.

I wouldn’t get too worked up about this. Let’s not forget the appalling rearrangement of the Sistina after his election.

First, it would have been impossible to set up an ironing-board altar within the bounds of the Communion rail at the altar where John Paul is situated. Believe me, those side altars in St. Peter’s don’t leave much room between the altar’s step and the rail.

He could have had an altar set up outside the Communion rail, but then we wouldn’t have been celebrating Mass on the tomb of the Blessed.

The only alternative was to put on the polyester vestment and celebrate as the architecture required. He could have at least used a white vestment and used the Mass formulary for Bl. John Paul.

So, don’t get too excited about this.

At the same time, if someone flings in your face that you can’t have Masses ad orientem, send them this picture. The fact remains: Francis said Mass ad orientem versus.