From a reader:
I know that the use of Latin is good for large international Masses (and for parish Masses, too…!), but what if, say, a priest and penitent didn’t speak the same language? Could a confession be made in Latin?
Sure! I have done that many times, as a matter of fact.
The Latin Church’s liturgical language is Latin. No! Really!
A flaw in your question: If both the penitent and the confessor know Latin, then they do know the same language.
A couple things popped up on the screen today.
First, Pope Francis has finally named a Secretary of State: Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela. He starts on 15 October 2013.
Also, the Holy Father assigned Spanish-born Fr. Fernando Vergez, LC, to run the Vatican City State’s Governatorato as Secretary General. The interesting thing about this appointment is not that he is a Legionaire of Christ – which I consider unimportant – but rather than he has not been also named an archbishop.
Thus, it seems that Francis is slowing down the career escalator.
A former head of the Governatorato is now Nuncio in these USA, Archbp. Carlo Maria Viganò, the man I hoped would become the Secretary of State. Viganò’s successor, and the immediate predecessor of Vergez, is Bp. Giuseppe Sciacca. Francis created a new position for Sciacca at the tribunal run by Card. Burke, the Apostolic Signatura. That was a little odd, and it probably means that Sciacca isn’t going anywhere else soon. Some traditionalists will read this as a bad sign for them, because Sciacca is known to be interested in traditional liturgical worship. So is Card. Burke, of course. But Sciacca started out as a good canonist. That, more than the liturgical reason, is probably why Sciacca went back to the Signatura.
On that note, it will be interesting to see when Francis calls a consistory for the purpose of making some new cardinals. Parolin will eventually need a red hat. That, however, is also not interesting. What will be interesting to watch is whether or not Francis confirms Archbp. Müller in his post at the CDF and give him a red hat. Benedict XVI did not make him a cardinal, after all.
Have you seen this? It is a worthy successor of the VW Darth Vader commercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPkByAkAdZs&feature=player_embedded
This blog is under constant attack by spammers and various other internet trolls (my they roast in the deepest cinders of Hell, as Dr. Maturin would put it).
I, therefore, require that people register to comment. In the registration form there is a field in which I ask for information about you. That field helps me sort out the vile spammers from sincere registrants.
The spammers are getting cleverer, by the way. Today I had this one – which follows a standard “format” from one particular spammer:
FIRST NAME: Felipa
LASTNAME: Navarro
WEBSITE: ____
ABOUT: I\’m Felipa and I live in Dunkerque.
I\’m interested in Gender and Women\’s Studies, Scrapbooking and Vietnamese art.
I like to travel and reading fantasy.
This seemed like it could have been from one of the steering committee of the LCWR on the way to an assembly, but… no, it was a spammer.
In any event, use that “about yourself” field. You don’t need to put a biography in it, but I do need something that demonstrates to me – at a glance – that you are a real person. Adding something like your confirmation name or a favorite saint or the name of your parish some such Catholic information is helpful.
It has finally happened.
I have at long last – for my sins – been summoned on pain of censures to appear at an ecclesiastical tribunal.
Here is an article about electronic surveillance and you. I have always liked Montana.
Montana the first state to pass spy law
Montana made history this spring after passing the first state law to prevent the government from spying on anyone in the state by tracking personal information stored in their electronic devices.
The new law made Montana a pioneer in the age of electronic privacy rights by requiring state and local government entities to obtain a probable-cause warrant before remotely engaging personal electronic devices.
Have you ever been out running or walking and had a close encounter with someone’s untethered mutt? What if the canine was lupine?
Idaho cyclist survives scary wolf chase
Yet another reason to pack heat.
SPOKANE, Wash. — An Idaho man cycling to Alaska suffered a scare after being chased by a gray wolf.
Thirty-five-year-old William “Mac” Hollan of Sandpoint says he also needed the help of friends to thwart a wolf that chased him last week — half-way through his 2,750-mile trip to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
Hollan told the Spokesman-Review the wolf charged out of the forest about 60 miles west of Watson Lake in the Yukon Territory.
Hollan — along with his cycling partners and other witnesses — says the wolf made an initial chomp at his pedal. As he peddled faster, the wolf kept pace and nipped several times at his bike packs.
He was finally rescued by a passing motorist and watched inside the vehicle as the wolf ripped his tent bag.
Apart from stories like these, I am all for the fostering of the return of wolves, especially where I am. The deer population is too large, which causes all sorts of problems. I suspect that the increase of Lyme’s Disease might be connected to the deer population. Dunno.
If Montana is being responsible, I am not so sure about Idaho. At Cato Institute, there is piece about…
Idaho Cooperates with Homeland Security on National ID
By JIM HARPER
In June 2011, I noted here how a new cardless national ID system was forming up using state driver license data. It hasn’t gone very far. Passage of an immigration reform bill containing a national E-Verify requirement would slam down the gas pedal.
But a few days ago, Idaho became the third state in the union to sign up for the Department of Homeland Security’s RIDE (Records and Information from DMVs for E-Verify) program, which is administered by the ID-friendly American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Idaho joins Mississippi and Florida in volunteering state driver information to the DHS.
As the full name of the program suggests, RIDE is an “add-on” to E-Verify, the government’s highly problematic system for “internal enforcement” of immigration law via government background checks. RIDE is intended to let the E-Verify system check the authenticity of driver licenses that are typically provided as one of the forms of ID during the broader verification process. E-Verify’s problems are legion—I documented them in my 2008 paper, “Franz Kafka’s Solution to Illegal Immigration“—and we highlighted them again on Capitol Hill in March.
[…]
Read the rest there.
Pilot’s ring lost in WWII POW camp returned to son
From the great Benedictines in Norcia:
How many steps are we away from What we read in Revelation 13?
Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men; and by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, bidding them make an image for the beast which was wounded by the sword and yet lived; and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should even speak, and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
At Vultus Christi Dom Mark posted something that must be shared:
In a Holy Fear
Holy Mass celebrated worthily, reverently, and carefully is itself the most convincing of sermons. The priest who stands before the altar in a holy fear, and who serves the Lord in reverence and with love, will touch more hearts than the most eloquent of preachers.
Not to Be Seen but to See
At the altar a priest preaches with his whole being. He enters into the sanctuary not to be seen, but to see, and in seeing the radiance of the glory of the Lord concealed in the Mysteries of His Body and Blood, he becomes to all a sign of His real presence and a witness of His glory, and this more perfectly than Moses when he descended from the holy mountain transfigured by the divine brightness.
You have probably heard of “malware”, which nefarious ne’erdowells slither into your computer. Have you ever heard of “Ransom-ware”? The NY Post had an article that was troubling.
Cyber gangs catch Internet porn watchers ‘in their underwear’, demand ransom for return of PC control
A pornography consumer who called the police in tears is among hundreds of Australians whose computers have been hacked by cyber criminals while viewing adult websites.
According to Fairfax, foreign gangs have been holding porn consumers ransom after infecting their PCs with viruses known as “ransomware”, which includes the “ukash”, “reveton” and “trojan.ransomlock” viruses.
The cyber criminals, who falsely claim to be members of the Australian Federal Police, “kidnap” a computer user’s data and demand a ransom for its return,
In this case, they have reportedly been activating the webcams on the users’ computers.
The viruses lock the desktop and post an incriminating image of the person on their screen before warning they have breached federal laws relating to child pornography, copyright or privacy, Fairfax reports.
The hackers then demand the victims pay a fine of $100 or $199 using a credit card or money transfer service.
They are threatened that if they don’t pay the fine within 72 hours, data files on the computer can be encrypted or wiped.
But even if a consumer pays a ransom for this kind of attack, it’s no guarantee they will regain control of their computer.
[…]
Not that you are sitting around looking at porn, mind you. However, if the ability to do this is out there, then there is no telling how and when the viler blackmailers will apply it to less unsavory sites, to capture the innocent. Be careful about where you surf, and what you click to open. I also recommend both my old Internet Prayer and the Litany. And keep your anti-virus software up to date.
Have you ever read the so-called “Intervention” by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci? You should: HERE
In Ol’ Blighty some folks are putting together a Liberal Arts school along the lines of TAC or WCC. Good luck to them! Benedictus College HERE
Finally, a single mother of 11 children is trying to make it through nursing school. I’ll bet you can help. HERE
Really finally, from the Hounds of God:
For your kind attention:
Friday 30 August, 7 PM at Detroit’s Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, the Most Reverend Donald Hanchon, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, will be celebrant for Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The Mass is organized by Juventutem Michigan, an apostolate for young people who are devoted to the traditional Latin Mass.
Mass will be preceded by the Rosary at 6:30.
And then…
There will be a Solemn Requiem Mass on Saturday, 31 August at 10:00 AM at Saint Ann Catholic Church in Charlotte. It is probably the first in the history of the Diocese of Charlotte, since the diocese was after the Second Vatican Council.
Diocese by diocese.
Where in the world is Sr. Joan?
For a while I have been wondering where Sr. Joan Chittister has been. Shouldn’t she be back in Egypt again, helping the Egyptians to sort out there problems? Shouldn’t she have been at the recent LCWR assembly rallying the sisters against the evil CDF?
She has finally surfaced.
An alert reader find someone from her on the website of perennial agitator Richard Sipe. Sr. Joan is going to have a teleconference! No, really!
Emphases mine as are comments. I am not making this up.
August 22, 2013
TO ALL OF THOSE WHO HOPE FOR REFORM WHICH AT THIS MOMENT SEEMS TANTALIZINGLY CLOSE, AND YET AT THE SAME TIME FAR TOO FAR AWAY: THE QUESTION IS WHAT CAN WE DO AT THIS TIME TO BRING THIS NEED AND URGENCY TO CONSCIOUSNESS AT THE LEVEL OF THE PAPACY ITSELF?
Dear Friends,
For the first time in years, reform-minded Catholics [HEY! I’me one of those! Though I suspect my idea of “reform” and hers might diverge a little.] find themselves at a moment of opportunity, a time that could well begin again the kind of church renewal Vatican II heralded for all the world to see. [I suspect Sr. Joan does not have a clue about what the Second Vatican Council actually called for in its documents.]
Bogged down by restorationist papacies for years, [Oooo!] the church has lurched between a deep-seated vision of renewal and the continuing shadow of 19c authoritarianism, between the kind of scandals authoritarianism breeds and the steady stream of defections they carried in their wake. [Lemme get this straight. It was authoritarianism that has caused all the problems?]
The Traditionalist papacy maintained the trappings of a medieval church and became more and more monarchical by the year [Huh? On which planet did that happen?] while the church of the people [Get that? “the church of the people” pitted against the “hierarchical” Church. This is an indication that Sr. Joan has either not read or has read and not understood Lumen gentium.] clung to the call of Vatican II [What a vague, empty phrase.] and worked and prayed for the conversion of the institution that could make it possible. [Again, people v. institution.] You know the truth of all of that because you are it. [Sounds like gnosticism.] You are the American voice of a church in exile groaning for new life. With the election of Jorge Bergoglio as the simple Pope Francis, [The “simple” Pope Francis? That is the one thing that Pope Francis is not.] it is possible that the time of listening has finally come. If we can possibly get his ear.
This week I got a phone call that I have been waiting for, for years. Rene Reid, a member of one of our Vatican II groups [What could those be, I wonder.] called to ask me whether or not I thought that it might not be more effective if her group collected the concerns of multiple groups and wrote a common letter to present to Pope Francis at the first meeting of his new advisory Council of Cardinals in October. I agreed to write my answer to all of you: I sincerely believe that until we raise a common voice we will not only not be heard, we will not even be listened to in the light of larger issues and larger groups, all clamoring for attention. By this I do not suggest the collapsing of reform groups into one agenda or one leadership. [HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!]
On the contrary. Every agenda being pursued by church groups in this country shines, as far as I can see, a valid and enlightening laser beam [A “valid” laser beam?] on the effects of bad theology [Like, perhaps, what the LCWR is into?] or poor church administration in a modern world. This work cannot be bartered after all these years of study, research and compilation of materials. These groups are our experts on multiple subjects and must, I think, be encouraged to feed the rest of us with the background material we need to understand the problems and address the answers plainly and persuasively. [Good luck.] The work they have done, are doing, cannot be lost. Nor do I think that we should sacrifice the leadership of each group to some kind of super-group. I am not suggesting any particular format or organizational structure. [The second time she mentions that.]
But I do think that our leaders should model together another way of being church. [buzzzzzz] Without competition, without distrust, without control. Instead, we need to raise a common voice on a single issue—the immediate need for the genuine renewal of the church.
The problem is that we can’t get anyone to take seriously the most serious issues in the church because they have yet to take the Reform of the institution itself seriously. [I think there is a church for them out there, now that I think about it.] And so we go on as if transparency, lay participation, finances, the women’s issue, authority, sexual abuse, the genderization of the church, [Good grief.] the nature of the episcopacy, the right to the sacraments and a host of others will not eventually destroy the church no matter how much good work we do. A church that refuses to take the Gospel as its guide on these topics rather than canons that are designed to prop up the structures that spawn them cannot possibly really preach Jesus. [ROFL! Yep, there’s a “church” for them out there. They could become, perhaps, Lutherans or Anglicans. Reason #3 for Romanorum coetibus!]
My hope is that by speaking out together–a strong chorus of calls for Reform–we can provide a common, a clear, a strong and ongoing voice for the yet incomplete vision of Vatican II. [I suggest they start by reading Lumen gentium.] My hope is that by putting all of our petitions in the same envelope we may actually visualize the breadth and depth of this movement more effectively than any amount of words can do. My hope is that in our desire to be heard on particular issues—all of them important–we do not lose the strength of our common voice by reducing it to a whisper. The purpose of this letter is simply, as Sr. Thea Bowman loved to say, to encourage the Church in one great lusty and full-bodied voice to say “AMEN” together to a new beginning.
Hopefully,
Joan Chittister, OSB
Note: The first teleconference call is set for Wednesday, September 4th, at 10:00 A.M. eastern time. The phone number to call is 712-432-0080 and the code is 1031413. The purpose of the call is to find our common voice on a single issue that we, as Church organizations and reform groups, want to have delivered to Pope Francis. We are requesting to have our topic placed on the agenda of the October meeting which the pope has scheduled with his cardinal advisors. Along with it, we intend to include a summary of backup data gathered by all of the organizations who have resource information, initiatives, or petitions that have been gathered over the years. If you want to be a part of this special opportunity, please mark this date on your calendar and be on the call or have a representative from your group. Because we are a worldwide group, the time for the call is: U.S. eastern time: 10:00 A.M.; U.S. central time: 9:00 A.M.; U. S. mountain time: 8:00 A.M.; U. S. pacific time: 7:00 A.M.; U.K. time, Ireland time, and Italy time: 3:00 P.M.; Sydney, Australia time: midnight. There is no need to pre-announce your plan to be on the call. We will take a roll call at the start. And minutes will be provided to everyone afterwards. If you see that an individual or group has been left off of this list, please forward them this information and have them contact us to be included in the future.
I think a whole bunch of you readers out there, should get involved. Share your voice! Don’t allow yourselves to be repressed!
Work for Reform!
I would appreciate it if other bloggers would link to this so that we can get a really large response.
Every once in a while I run into someone who doesn’t know about the Eucharistic fast before reception of Holy Communion.
We have to be properly disposed to receive the Eucharist. We have a spiritual preparation, in examining our consciences and making sure that we are in the state of grace. We have a physical preparation, which involves fasting.
For the Latin Church, the Code of Canon Law states that
“One who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion.”
Note: The law says before Communion, not before the beginning of Mass. So, one hour isn’t very long.
In 1964 Pope Paul VI reduced the length of the fast to one hour. Ven. Pius XII reduced the fast to 3 hours in 1957. Before that, people were to fast from Midnight before Mass.
Our current law about fasting before Communion admits exceptions.
When a priest celebrates more than one Mass on the same day he is only bound to the one-hour fast before his first Mass.
Second, those who are elderly (considered to be 60 years of age) or who are sick (as well as the caretakers of people who are sick) can receive Communion even if a full hour fast has not been fulfilled. This is helpful for people whose food comes on a schedule they cannot control.
Some think that the one hour fast before Communion is not enough and that the Church’s law should be change to require a longer fast.
Of course people can fast longer if they want to, but for now the law says one hour.
Let’s have a poll. Please pick the best response and add your reasons in the combox, if you are registered here.
UPDATE:
By coincidence, Dr. Ed Peters is – right now – (5:30 EDT) on Relevant Radio with Drew Mariani talking about this very issue!
UPDATE:
Check out Dr. Ed Peters page about this issue. HERE
From a reader:
I woke up this morning and had an epiphany from the Holy Spirit- I’m an ass. I don’t want to be one anymore, so I would like to confess this and amend my life ASAP.
One problem. I don’t really know how to confess this. While “ass” used in this way is a completely legitimate usage according to the dictionary, I doubt I can just tell my confessor “I’ve been an ass in thought, word, and deed for the past several months now“.
What’s a good way of confessing this?
LOL!
Well… that’s what I call a great start! Refreshing.
Confessors like direct talk, free of obfuscation and verbiage (for those of you in Columbia Heights, that’s “just say it and be brief”.
The best way you can start to convey that you have been an ass, is to make your good, complete confession, in direct language, concisely, revealing all your mortal sins in both kind and number.
Then, if there is no one in line, or if you have made an appointment before hand, you might make a “general confession”, especially considering the really big things of the past. Be brief. You don’t have to go into a lot of detail.
And don’t be mulish about confessing everything.
Then, at the end, ask for a penance, absolution, and then say that you will amend your life. “Amend your life” is another way of saying that you realize that you have been an ass that that you are not going to be an ass anymore, any kind of an ass, a sinning jackass – never again, quod Deus averruncet!
I end with the admonition to every single reader of this entry to stop being unrepentant asses and…
GO TO CONFESSION.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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