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{]:¬)

WYD: Holy Communion from disposable plastic cups at Mega-Mass

Posted on 6 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have deep misgivings about mega-Masses. Leaving aside the obvious problem of the effective range of a priest’s consecration, and leaving aside the problem of too many Hosts being consecrated, how can, I muse, Holy Communion be distributed to so many in any way that even slightly resembles “reverent”?

What signal do we send through this experience of Communion?

My solution would be, if Masses like this are necessary (and Popes seem to think they are) that there would be no distribution of Communion beyond the immediate ministers for Mass.

Now that I have that off my chest, here are some photos of distribution of Holy Communion during the last big mega-Mass in Rio during World Youth Day. I picked these up from the Italian blog Messa in latino (more there).

Disposable plastic cups, my friends. That’s what they used for distribution of Holy Communion. Disposable plastic cups.

Really?

A quick poll about this.

In the combox, do NOT make this into a referendum on World Youth Day. That’s not the point here.

UPDATE 7 August:

I received the following by email. I also invited the sender to post it as a comment.

I don’t post comments usually, but as a youth who attended WYD in Rio, I have to say that the event was stereotyped by your blog. I have no doubts that what you said in your blog is true and I understand people’s frustration with Masses that large. However, your blog post does not have an accurate representation of WYD from an individual’s perspective. [? Oh?] In the area where I was, though the Eucharist was not in precious metal as He should be, He instead was held in a ceramic bowl which is better than plastic disposable cups. People waited patiently in line for a long time to receive Holy Communion and a man was holding a sign saying that pilgrims could ONLY receive on the tongue.

People generally knelt to receive Him and no one jostled each other to get in line or be first. So while the majority of people may have been disrespectful, I just wanted to give you a little hope.

Fine. But this doesn’t change the fact of distribution of the Blessed Sacrament from disposable plastic cups.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged Holy Communion, mega-Masses, WYD
151 Comments

What is your good news?

Posted on 6 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have some good news to share with the other readers?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
65 Comments

UPDATE on Franciscans Friar of the Immaculate

Posted on 5 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is an update about the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. As you know, the Holy See engaged in a “take over” of the group after there was some division over liturgical matters. HERE

At a site of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, HERE.

Here is the first part:

On 02 August 2013, the website vaticaninsider.lastampa.it published an article entitled «Lombardi: “Sulla Messa in latino il Papa non contraddice Ratzinger“» (Lombardi: on the Latin Mass the Pope does not contradict Ratzinger), signed “editorial staff”. [translator’s note: since this Italian article was not published with an English translation, the translations of it are ours.]
This article, after reporting the statements of Fr. Lombardi, who takes the same line we already had, contains calumnious statements against our Founder, Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, statements that we feel the duty to reject. In the same article there is also untrue or imprecise information to which we wish to draw attention.
1) In regard to the assignment of a Commissioner for our Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, the anonymous journalist writes (our bold):
“The decision of Pope Bergoglio—against which some traditionalist groups rose up, and which the religious instead immediately accepted—was motivated by the fact that the founder and general superior, Fr. Stefano Manelli, had imposed on all the communities of the Franciscans of the Immaculate the exclusive use of the extraordinary form of the liturgy, i.e., the old rite.”
The phrase we have highlighted in bold does not at all correspond to the truth.
It is our duty to respond, with knowledge and in conscience, that in reality, Fr. Stefano not only has never imposed on all the F.I. communities the use—much less the exclusive use—of the Vetus Ordo, but he does not even want it to become the exclusive use, and he has personally given the example, celebrating everywhere according to the one and the other Ordo.
It is well to know that before, during, and after the Apostolic Visit (July 2012–July 2013), as well as at present, the exclusive orprioritized use of the greater part of the F.F.I. Communities is the Novus Ordo (Holy Mass and Breviary).
Fr. Stefano Manelli, as Minister General, together with his General Council, legitimately undertook an effort to promote the Vetus Ordo, respecting the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum (2007), respecting the decisions of our General Chapter of 2008, and respecting the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011).
With a letter, Prot. 77/2011, dated 21 Nov 2011, our General Secretary, in the name of our General Council, sent all the F.F.I. Marian Houses (Friaries), some indicative (not preceptive!) norms regarding the use of the Vetus Ordo and the harmony between the Vetus Ordo and the Novus Ordo in our Communities and our Institute.
After this letter, various communities peacefully continued to give pride of place to the Vetus or the Novus Ordo. So there was no imposition on the part of Fr. Manelli.
Some Friars, however, contested the aforesaid letter. Therefore, we consulted the Pontificial Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, which with a R e s c r i p t of 14 Apr 2012, Prot. 39/2011L, found conformity between this letter (Prot. 77/2011) and the “mens” of Holy Father Benedict XVI, expressed in the already-mentioned Instruction Universae Ecclesiae, n° 8a.

And there is this from Mary Victrix:

Having learned of the online petition organized by the website of the Association “Corrispondenza Romana” in order to gather signatures to be presented to the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life against the Decree of 11 July 2013 (Prot. 52741/2012), after having already expressed its position several times and after having released the official communication of its Father Founder, the Religious Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate REAFFIRMS its obedience to the dispositions of the Holy Father, DECLARES that it will have NOTHING TO DO with the initiative of the aforesaid website or any like initiative, past or future, REJECTS any attempt to use a matter internal to the Institute to attack the Pope and the Catholic Hierarchy, and APPEALS TO ALL to maintain SILENCE, RESPECT AND PRAYER regarding the matter, in order to allow the competent authorities to carry out their task in peace for the good of the Church and of the Institute.

In Corde Matris
Fr. Rosario M. Sammarco, fi
Encharged of the Institutional Website of the Franciscans Friars of the Immaculate

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Benedict XVI, Francis, Linking Back | Tagged Fr. Stefano Manelli, Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, PCED, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, Vetus Ordo
27 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 5 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point in the sermon you heard for Sunday Mass?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
10 Comments

Catastrophically large solar flare narrowly missed the Earth two weeks ago

Posted on 5 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In 1859 the Earth was struck by a massive solar storm called the Carrington Event. Life was not affected much at that time, because so little used electricity. Were such a storm to strike the Earth now, however, most if not all non-hardened or protected electronic devices would be fried. The globe would be plunged into the 19th century again, with catastrophic results for most of the the world’s population.

I saw this story in the Washington Examiner:

Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided
BY PAUL BEDARD

The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an “electromagnetic pulse” so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States.

Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth’s typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.

“The world escaped an EMP catastrophe,” said Henry Cooper, who led strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.

“There had been a near miss about two weeks ago, a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us,” said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

“Basically this is a Russian roulette thing,” added Pry. “We narrowly escape from a Carrington-class disaster.”

Pry, Cooper, and former CIA Director James Woolsey have been recently demanding that Washington prepare the nation’s electric grid for an EMP, either from the sun or an enemy’s nuclear bomb. They want the 2,000-3,000 transformers in the grid protected with a high-tech metal box and spares ready to rebuild the system. Woolsey said knocking out just 20 would shut down electricity to parts of the nation “for a long time.”

But Washington is giving them the cold shoulder, especially the administration. [Would that be the Obama Administration? Of course! A Carrington Event would be best thing that could ever happen for them!] Woolsey told Secrets that some in Congress are interested in the issue, but the administration is just in the “beginnings” of paying attention.

Woolsey said that Air Force One and aircraft used by the Strategic Air Command to control nuclear-tipped missiles are hardened against an EMP.

The EMP effect is not rare. One occurred in Canada in 1989, knocking out Quebec’s electric transmission system. And North Korea is reportedly testing a device to attack the U.S. with an EMP attack.

The trio appeared at an event in Washington this week, but Pry said getting the nation’s leaders interested in the issue is difficult and educating the public about EMP hard too. “The education curve isn’t going up fast enough,” he said.

At the event, Cooper suggested that North Korea might already have the capability to launch an EMP against the United States. He said in December, North Korea tested its so-called Space Launch Vehicle which could deliver a stealthy nuclear attack on the United States by orbiting a nuclear weapon over the South Pole where the U.S. has no radar or missile interceptors facing south. North Korea, he said, apparently orbited a satellite over the south polar region on a trajectory and altitude consistent with making a surprise nuclear EMP attack against the United States.

Woolsey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are the honorary co-chairs of a new EMP Coalition pushing for protections to the electric grid, national security, and civilian infrastructures.

Here are a few books you can try out, just to scare the stuffing out of you.

Lights Out by David Crawford

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

Dark Grid by David. C. Waldron

The following isn’t a CME/EMP scenario, but the effects are in many respects the same.

Patriots by James Wesley Rawles.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Global Killer Asteroid Questions, Look! Up in the sky!, Semper Paratus, TEOTWAWKI, The future and our choices | Tagged 1859, Carrington Event, CME, EMP, TEOTWAWKI, TSHTF
18 Comments

The finest rosaries I have ever seen.

Posted on 5 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have on occasion mentioned the best rosaries I have ever seen. They are made by a acquaintance and collaborator way back in the days when I was still involved with Compuserve! One of the participants started her own rosary making business and produced amazing things. She took a break for while but is now back at it.

Thus, I bring to your attention: Queen of Peace Rosaries.

I like to give them as priesthood ordination presents.

The ones I have had made over the years are beautiful, have a heavy feel to them, and are strong enough to pull a trailer if hitch gives out.

A few pics. Here is how they come.

They have a cloth bag.

I choose the more traditional looking elements. Big surprise there.

You can see how she wraps the wire around a couple times for added strength.

These are great – for yourself or as gifts for, perhaps, sacramental moments such as confirmation or ordination, even religious profession. I know one fellow who had two rosaries made for a couple getting married, identical except for color of the beads.

Check ’em out!

Posted in Just Too Cool, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Queen of Peace Rosaries, rosary
28 Comments

Voris on Francis, off-the-cuff remarks, and the MSM

Posted on 4 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is Michael Voris on the “Who am I to judge!” line from Pope Francis on the airplane.

He puts his foot wrong in calling Msgr. Ricca a bishop (he isn’t) but that doesn’t change the substance of what Voris has to say.

Voris raises the possibility that Francis could benefit from some sage advice by his handlers (in avoiding off-the-cuff comments).

I think that would depend on whether or not Pope intends to create a ruckus through these comments or not.

As I have ventured elsewhere, I said that were I advising Francis, I would show him lots of media reactions to his comments and then ask him, “Holy Father, is this what you want?” If he says, “Yes!”… well… then okay! We work with it. If he were to say, “No, not really.”, then we would have to work on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjDKMIMkm4&feature=player_embedded

Posted in Biased Media Coverage, Liberals, The Drill | Tagged Michael Voris, MSM, Pope Francis
58 Comments

When you can’t receive Holy Communion: Go any way … or…

Posted on 4 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is a great shot of His Eminence Raymond Card. Burke in what appears to be the church of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in WI.

I picked this up from facebook

Explanation:

Louis [the child] was so sad that he couldn’t receive 1st Communion; he was in tears. When he said hi to Cardinal Burke, I explained to the Cardinal why he was sad and Louis just leaned into him and cried. His Eminence embraced him so lovingly and told him, “don’t worry, your first Communion will come soon enough!”
I love that Louis poured out his sorrow to him like the shepherd that Cardinal Burke is… so dear!

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged 1st Holy Communion, Card. Burke
28 Comments

Getting Shakespeare WRONG

Posted on 4 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As some of you know, I am a great fan of The Bard. (For example, HERE. I really must get back to that some day.)

I saw at Saint Austin Review a piece by Joseph Pearce which struck a nerve. What Pearce saw done to Shakespeare is what we also see being done in theology today.

Fighting The Shakespeare Wars
BY JOSEPH PEARCE

Last night I was fighting the Shakespeare Wars at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. I had been invited by the priest who runs the university’s centre for faith and culture to address the controversy surrounding the Catholic Shakespeare as part of DeSales’ annual Shakespeare Festival. Instead of giving a speech followed by a period of questions, I was asked to make only a few brief introductory comments so that the bulk of the event could be devoted to a period in which I would field questions from the audience. A lively session followed in which I addressed questions connected to Shakespeare’s life and to many of his plays.
Immediately after the event I took my seat at the university’s theatre to see a performance of Measure for Measure. It was well directed and extremely well acted, though the production succumbed, all too predictably, to the modern tendency to vulgarize and accentuate the bawdy elements to the detriment of the main moral thrust of the drama. Nonetheless, the palpitating presence of Isabella’s holiness exorcised the demons and shone forth Shakespeare’s patently Catholic purpose. Her role and presence in the play serves as a timely and timeless mataphor for the power and purpose of the presence of the saints in the vale of tears. Indeed her presence tears the veil so that the light of heaven can penetrate the darkness. Although the non-believers in the audience did not know it, they were being evangelized with the light and love of the Gospel.
On a darker, uglier note, I was saddened to see that the theatre’s bookstore offered only two books on Shakespeare, both of which are examples of woefully poor scholarship. The first was Bertram Fields’ pathetically shallow attempt to show that Shakespeare was not really Shakespeare but that he was really the Earl of Oxford in disguise. The other was Germaine Greer’s equally pathetic and perverse effort to show that Shakespeare was a male chauvenist pig. The bookstore also offered a pink t-shirt for sale with a picture of the Bard wearing heavy make-up and transformed into a transvestite. Thus the false Shakespeare, the feminist Shakespeare and the queer Shakespeare were all on gaudy display. Needless to say, the real Shakespeare was nowhere to be seen. Such crass injustice to our Catholic Bard merely encourages me to fight all the harder in the Shakespeare Wars.

May I recommend a couple books about Shakespeare’s (unquestionable) Catholicism?

First, try Clare Asquith’s Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare. She over plays her hand once in while, but in the main the book is engaging and convincing.

Also, Joseph Pearce, mentioned above, has The Quest for Shakespeare

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, The Drill | Tagged Joseph Pearce, Shakespeare
22 Comments

New/Old Secretary for the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”

Posted on 4 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am scratching my head this morning.

Pope Francis has moved the former Secretary of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei“, who was eventually consecrated bishop and became the Papal Almoner, back to the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei“… as Secretary… again.

From the Bolletino:

RINUNCE E NOMINE
NOMINA DEL SEGRETARIO DELLA PONTIFICIA COMMISSIONE «ECCLESIA DEI»

Il Santo Padre Francesco ha nominato Segretario della Pontificia Commissione «Ecclesia Dei» S.E. Mons. Guido Pozzo, Arcivescovo titolare di Bagnoregio, finora Elemosiniere di Sua Santità.

“But Father! But Father!”, people will ask, “What does this mean? Wasn’t Archbp. Pozzo involved somehow with the degeneration of the talks with the SSPX?”

He was around, yes, when things started to become more difficult, yes. But I suspect that there would have been complications no matter who was there.

There is little doubt that Pozzo knows the material and terrain. He is arguably one of the better informed men in the Curia when it comes to dealings with the SSPX.

Will that make any difference?

I have a few less-optimistic interpretations, but I will keep them to myself.

My initial guess is that in this move the PCED, which is now under the CDF, has been “beefed up” a little. Now the PCED has not only a Vice-President in the person of Archbp. Di Noia, it also has a Secretary who is a bishop. This does give the PCED a little more “weight”, in a sense.

However, with a Prefect who seems not to want to have anything to do with the SSPX and now the return of Archbp. Pozzo to the PCED, one wonders how Archbp. Di Noia and Pozzo will “tag team” this complicated mess to a positive conclusion.

Color me puzzled.

In the meantime, everyone, surge forward!

Use the provisions of Summorum Ponticum.