Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Bp. Paprocki: same-sex marriage activists no to be admitted to cathedral

Posted on 23 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Bp. Paprocki seems to be a “hard identity” Catholic. We need “hard identity” Catholicism.

That doesn’t mean being mean. That means being clear. “Hard identity” Catholicism doesn’t reject compassion or diplomacy or joy. That’s what liberals do. “Hard identity” Catholics wants it all: compassion, joy, reverence, clarity and fidelity in our cult, our code and our creed.

Back to Bp. Paprocki.

I saw this at the site of the Chicago Sun-Times:

Springfield bishop: ‘Blasphemous’ same-sex advocates wearing rainbow sashes won’t be allowed at Mass

SPRINGFIELD-The head of Springfield’s Roman Catholic diocese moved Tuesday to scuttle a silent protest by same-sex marriage advocates planned at the capital city’s largest Catholic church, calling their plans to pray the rosary for marriage equality “blasphemous.” [If you are not sure about what “blasphemy” is, click HERE. I’ll add that what they intend to do also sounds like sacrilege.]
Advocates for the Senate Bill 10 plan to attend a 5:15 p.m. Tuesday Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception as part of what organizers describe as a “loud Catholic Presence for marriage equality” that will wrap up a daylong rally in support of the stalled legislation.
But Bishop Thomas Paprocki, head of the Springfield Catholic diocese, said anyone wearing rainbow sashes won’t be permitted inside the church. [Reason #3 to bring back the Minor Orders and confer the order of Doorkeeper on brave, somewhat menacing men, perhaps with CCW licenses and lots of training. We could start with police officers. They have to give of their time, treasure and talent to Holy Church just like everyone else, right? Being Doorkeepers at Mass could be a way for them to see to the material (and spiritual) well-being of the Church!]
“It is blasphemy to show disrespect or irreverence to God or to something holy,” Paprocki said in a statement released late Tuesday morning. “Since Jesus clearly taught that marriage as created by God is a sacred institution between a man and a woman (see Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-9), praying for same-sex marriage should be seen as blasphemous and as such will not be permitted in the cathedral.
People wearing a rainbow sash or who otherwise identify themselves as affiliated with the Rainbow Sash Movement will not be admitted into the cathedral and anyone who gets up to pray for same-sex marriage in the cathedral will be asked to leave,” Paprocki said.
“Of course, our cathedral and parish churches are always open to everyone who wishes to repent their sins and ask for God’s forgiveness,” he said.

Fr Z kudos to Bp. Paprocki.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Fr. Z KUDOS, Hard-Identity Catholicism, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged Bp. Paprocki, CCW, D. Springfield in Illinois, doorkeeper, homosexual activists, minor orders, porter, same-sex marriage
27 Comments

Events of terrible beauty

Posted on 23 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

One of these days, there will be another Carrington Event.

There will be a huge coronal mass ejection from your planet’s yellow star that strikes your planet square on. The result will be a vast electromagnetic pulse which fries almost all your electronic stuff. You will be plunged in an instant back to something like the 19th century.

Will you have what it takes to survive?

On the other hand, perhaps there will be nuclear attacks that cause EMPs, or perhaps there will be a pandemic or other natural events which brings down the world’s economy, resulting in much the same.

On that cheery note, I read at Spaceweather:

ERUPTING FILAMENT AND EARTH-DIRECTED CME: During the early hours of Oct. 22nd, a long filament of magnetism erupted on the sun: movie. The explosion hurled a lopsided CME into space, and a new analysis suggests it could be Earth-directed. Click to watch the movie, then scroll down for more information:

The eruption occured squarely on the Earthside of the sun, but the CME is not squarely Earth-directed. The bulk of the ejecta will fly north of the sun-Earth line. Nevertheless, the CME is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field on Oct. 24-25. It might even merge with a pair of minor CMEs traveling ahead of it. If so, the combined impact would be more likely to spark a geomagnetic storm. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras in the nights ahead.

Watch for auroras!

They are events of terrible beauty, presaging we know not what.

Posted in Global Killer Asteroid Questions, Look! Up in the sky!, Semper Paratus, TEOTWAWKI | Tagged aurora borealis, Carrington Event, CME, EMP
18 Comments

Prayer before connecting to the internet – 2 new languages!

Posted on 23 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My page with all the translations is HERE. You can always find it by going to the list of Pages at the bottom of this blog.

I often forget to pray before using the internet. I often fail in charity when using it. This tool of social communication and research and entertainment has amazing upsides and spiritually deadly perils. We all should be very careful in how we use it – and through – use each other, “use” in the finer sense of “treat”.

A little while ago I got a version in Klingon. Fun.

WARNING: This may not show up correctly if you don’t have the right fonts. Someone posted a comment on this, below.

So, here is the newest version in ….

CZECH

Modlitba před připojením k internetu

Všemohoucí věčný Bože, který jsi nás stvořil k obrazu svému
a přikázal jsi nám hledat vše dobré, pravdivé a krásné,
obzvláště pak v božské osobě Tvého jednorozeného Syna, našeho
Pána Ježíše Krista, daruj nám, prosíme tě, abychom na
přímluvu Sv. Isidora, biskupa a doktora, během naší poutě
internetem směrovali své ruce a oči pouze k tomu, co je Ti milé a
abychom projevovali lásku a trpělivost ke všem duším, které
potkáme. Skrze Krista našeho Pána. Amen.

and in

WELSH

Gweddi cyn cysylltu â’r Wê

Hollalluog a thragwyddol Dduw, a’n creodd ar dy wedd a’n hannog i chwilio’r hyn sy’n dda, gwir a hardd, yn anad dim ym mherson duwiol dy Unig-anedig Fab, ein Harglwydd Iesu Grist, dyro, yr erfyniwn arnat, drwy eiriolaeth y Sant Isidor, Esgob a Doethur, ar ein teithiau drwy’r Wê, inni arwain ein dwylo a’n llygaid i’r hyn yn unig sydd yn ddymunol i Ti, a thrin gydag amynedd a chariad bawb yr ydym yn cwrdd â hwy. Trwy Grist ein Harglwydd. Amen.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged Internet Prayer
9 Comments

Here’s an idea

Posted on 23 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In my reading today, I discovered that the website for Obamacare – you know, the one that doesn’t work – has cost taxpayers over $300 million dollars.

$300 million. For the website alone.

It could actually be a lot more than $300 million. HERE

Here’s an idea.

Let’s just create medical “bank accounts” for every person in the USA. Heck. Let’s include illegals.

Then let’s just give every man, woman and child $1 million, earmarked for healthcare. You are born: ka-ching! – you get a million bucks for healthcare from the American tax payer. Whatever the person hasn’t used in her lifetime can then just revert to the taxpayer.

$300 million. For the website alone. And Mooer’s Law is kicking in right on schedule.

What’s this all going to to cost by the time we get into it for a while? Billions. Probably trillions. Good grief.

Posted in Liberals, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Mooer's Law, Obamacare, Obamatax, stupidity
20 Comments

Archbp. Müller (CDF) on Communion for divorced/remarried. Liberals’ panic to follow.

Posted on 22 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In tomorrow’s edition of L’Osservatore Romano there is a long essay (4000+ words) by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbp. Müller, on the hotly-debate issue of Communion for the divorced and remarried. (I haven’t checked it against the Italian yet.)

I mentioned that I had been hearing rumblings about a piece in L’O for a little while. This seems to be it.

Müller opposes the various solutions that have been presented for the divorced and remarried. This is not to say that the Prefect believes it impossible for the Church ultimately to find a solution to the dilemma. Rejecting some proposed solutions is different from rejecting any possible solution. (Please, those of you in Columbia Heights, don’t freak out when you read that and dash about like Chicken Little. Theologians make distinctions. Rejection of proposed solutions could be part of a process.)

At the core of Müller’s piece there seems to be a dismantling of all the arguments that depend mostly on “mercy” without the concomitant dimension of justice, the Lord’s own teaching, etc.

This is going to be spun by the left as the Bad Guy’s attempt to stop Francis.

Müller won’t be presented as the voice of reason. No, he will be the Bad Guy.

Fishwrap will say something nasty about him, something personal, like, “Now that Müller is secure in his appointment as Prefect, he feels free to attack ‘mercy’.”

Then they will find a picture of Müller scowling.

It is so predictable.

Here is a sample from Müller’s piece:

A further case for the admission of remarried divorcees to the sacraments is argued in terms of mercy. Given that Jesus himself showed solidarity with the suffering and poured out his merciful love upon them, mercy is said to be a distinctive quality of true discipleship. This is correct, but it misses the mark when adopted as an argument in the field of sacramental theology. The entire sacramental economy is a work of divine mercy and it cannot simply be swept aside by an appeal to the same. An objectively false appeal to mercy also runs the risk of trivializing the image of God, by implying that God cannot do other than forgive. The mystery of God includes not only his mercy but also his holiness and his justice. If one were to suppress these characteristics of God and refuse to take sin seriously, ultimately it would not even be possible to bring God’s mercy to man. Jesus encountered the adulteress with great compassion, but he said to her “Go and do not sin again” (Jn 8:11). God’s mercy does not dispense us from following his commandments or the rules of the Church. Rather it supplies us with the grace and strength needed to fulfil them, to pick ourselves up after a fall, and to live life in its fullness according to the image of our heavenly Father.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Archbp. Müller, Communion, divorce, divorce and remarriage, marriage
68 Comments

Get out your handkerchiefs: Fishwrap on the fading “Francis Moment”…..

Posted on 22 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter), the editor is already starting to wring his hands.

The editorial is a bit mawkish, but you can forgive that.

Here is a sample:

Francis is the exclamation point on Vatican II
Thomas C. Fox

I already hear concerns that the reformist church of 76-year-old Pope Francis might not survive his pontificate. I hear talk that the anti-reformists who took back the Second Vatican Council will likely do it again once Francis is gone from the scene.
We ask: Will a church groomed by compassion and mercy, as Francis would have it, be the church of our future? [Or will it be the oppressive Church of Benedict and JP2 with their torture chambers and auto de fé?] Will our church be guided, as if with a compass, by the lives and needs of marginalized people? Can a pastoral Catholicism, embedded in the Beatitudes, be the Catholicism we offer the world? [Good grief. Get this man some tissues, for the love of God.]

Viewed solely as a moment in church history, the Francis moment might not last. Post-Vatican II history teaches us that entrenched forces have ways of enduring. In this view, Francis could be a passing fancy. [big *sigh*….] However, from the long view of history, the Francis pontificate could well be the exclamation point on Vatican II — change and reform is the default mode of operation, not a one-time activity.

[… more sloppy stuff here… up to the big peroration!… ]

So, again, is our church on an irreversible, ever-reforming path? Or will Francis fade like the council, a meteorite in the night sky? [duh duh DUUUUUHNNNN!] Francis is the first pontiff educated during the council. He is a product of the council. In this sense, he is the first post-conciliar pontiff. Further, he embraces the theology and spirit of the council with seemingly unbridled affection. [Keep tuned to this channel. They’re figuring out that their “spirit” and Francis’ “spirit”, might not be the same.] The Francis era is really a new phase in an unfolding church reform story, one, as Francis reminds us, that will be full of surprises. [And how, dear readers, is that different from any other modern pontificate?]

Not to kick a guy when he is down, but Pope Francis excommunicated the Australian, former-Father Greg Reynolds. HERE

Why did he excommunicate him? For upholding two things that Fox’s Fishwrap promotes: homosexual lifestyle and the ordination of women. (Not to mention Communion for quadrupeds.)

Get out your handkerchiefs.

Posted in Francis, Liberals, The Drill, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged Fishwrap, Greg Reynolds, National Schismatic Reporter, NSR
19 Comments

“I find your lack of faith … invalidating.”

Posted on 22 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

All around Rome there is buzz that soon we may be seeing something from the Holy See about the issue of Communion for divorced/remarried couples. Of course there would be, right? There is a synod on the family coming up.

This is a burning issue. The flames of the issue were recently fanned when a second rate official of a new vacant (lacking a bishop) diocese in Germany issued on his own a statement contrary to the Church’s laws that the d/remarried would be given Communion, no problemo. See canonist Ed Peters This is why we have Canon 428.

I am told by those who know things that next week we may see something in L’Osservatore Romano on the questions. I doubt it will be an official document. It’ll probably by just an essay, which is not uncommon for L’O. But it would not be nothing. [UPDATE: I should I have look at today’s – rather, tomorrow’s (23 Oct) – issue. Thanks to a reader who caught it and posted in the combox. Archbp. Müller of CDF, no less. HERE The next day’s issue of L’O is released the afternoon before, Rome time. I wrote this before that hour.]

Furthermore, before I left the states for the Italian pilgrimage and this subsequent time in Rome, I had been told by a bishop somewhere or other that one of the ideas that was being explored was something that then Card. Ratzinger had advanced back in the 1990’s. I was going to write about this back then, but … I got busy.

At Vatican Insider there was something about this back in 2012 HERE:

Benedict XVI himself admits that communion for divorced and remarried persons is an open question. He spoke about it in a meeting with the priests of the diocese of Aosta on July 25, 2005 and, more officially, in his speech to the Roman Rota, on 28 January 2006. Both times, the Pope urged them to “deepen” a particular case: the possible invalidity of a marriage in the Church celebrated without faith, for those who, having passed to a second union, have returned to the practice of Christian life and request communion.

More on that Ratzingerian essay from Magister: HERE

The idea is this: if putative marriages can be said to have been null on the basis of psychological immaturity or inability to make a commitment, etc. (a common rubber-stamp reason in Canon Law used by marriage tribunals far and wide for a long time – happily now abating), then perhaps we might be able to say the same thing about putative marriages in which the couple really had no concept of or knowledge of or intention of faith.

Think about this: we are in a post-Christian society in many places in the world. Many who were baptized, perhaps children of parents to baptized for the sake of appeasing gramma and who themselves had no idea of what the Catholic Faith is, who never had either the faith by which we believe (qua – the virtue) or faith in which we believe (quae – the content of doctrine, etc.), might not actually be married sacramentally even though they married another baptized Catholic and went through the form of the sacrament of matrimony without a single flaw in the form.

You could look at all the documents and say that, yes, they are married and there ought to be a sacrament binding them. But… really? Juridically yes. More deeply, theologically? And, if so, can that be determined with moral certitude?

This is an old argument. Like I said, Ratzinger tossed this out there back in the 1990’s.

However, as I was catching up on email and blogs after our anabasis in Italy, I noted this posted on an Italian blog I look at… back on 9 October.

E Ratzinger risponde: 5 obiezioni e 5 risposte dell’ex-Papa sulla pastorale dei divorziati risposati … And Ratzinger responds: 5 objections and 5 responses from the ex-Pope on the pastoral (approach to) the divorced and remarried.

Lo and behold, the blog post begins with the very issue I have been hearing rumblings about for several weeks.

The game’s afoot, friends.

I can’t imagine what would happen in tribunals far and wide were some “solution” like this adopted and somehow enshrined in a change to the Code of Canon Law.

I can picture sweat breaking out on the brows of canonists who are reading this. They will need to stock up on their midnight oil and Mystic Monk Coffee.

There are seriously theological thorns in the proposal that “incapacity” due to insufficient faith might be somehow identifiable in such a way that a tribunal (for there would still have to be a tribunal process – marriages have juridical effects and the proper process of discernment and judging has to be involved) could declare a sacrament never took place on the basis of the lack of faith of two proven baptized Catholics who, even though they were psychologically mature in every respect, were insufficiently mature from the point of view of faith (both fides qua and quae).

Posted in One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill | Tagged divorce, Faith, fides qua creditur, fides quae creditur, indissolubility, marriage, matrimony, remarriage, sacrament
78 Comments

How’s my driving

Posted on 22 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Something light sent by a friend:

Posted in Francis, Lighter fare | Tagged cars, Pope Francis
10 Comments

QUAERITUR: Forcing people to pray “spontaneously”. (Turn the tables on ’em.)

Posted on 22 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a professed sisterly readerette:

Many teachers on our staff are involved with the Charismatic Movement, including our principal. At the end of our faculty meetings she goes around the table requiring each teacher to make a spontaneous prayer. I am not comfortable doing this and how could I politely “pass”?

Pass?!? Why would you want to “pass”? Have a little fun with this!

How about memorizing and then “spontaneously” reciting with true fervor the Loríca of St. Patrick?

It’s long, which will make them all uncomfortable, and the invocations will scare the grits and biscuits out of the liberals present as you go on and on and on.

Maybe even stand up and put your arms in the orans position as you recite. Or even cruciform!

Be sure to include all the good bits which will make feminists squirm in self-conscious guilt:

Lorica of Saint Patrick
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

It’s also environmental and green! The LCWR should recite this at every meeting…. but then a whole bunch of the members would then instantly be expelled from the room, wouldn’t they.

Forced spontaneous prayer… pfft.

Consult also the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum for those brief, spontaneous little prayers that are so helpful to dispose us to greater devotion along with spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Just Too Cool, Lighter fare | Tagged ejaculations, Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, Lorica of St. Patrick, spontaneous prayer
40 Comments

Abuse by priests

Posted on 22 October 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw a great post about the motives of liturgical abuse at the blog Waiting For Godot To Leave (fun title).

Here is some of it. See the rest there. My emphases and comments:

The Precision of Abuse – Liturgical and Otherwise

Yesterday, on the road again, my actress and I attended a Vigil Mass somewhere in America. It was definitely America, though it may not have been a Mass.

The priest was a 70-something soft-spoken slow moving effeminate fellow, and the music was all the Bad Stuff, about a dozen of the worst “hymns” played over and over again on piano before Mass even started, kind of like an episode of The Twilight Zone where you’re trapped in an elevator with horrible “muzak” and nobody else trapped with you seems to mind or even notice.

The priest assured us in the homily that when Moses lifted his arms and God’s staff before the Israelites battling Amalek (Ex. 17:8-13), he was “giving them instructions on the battle,” showing them where to attack and where to draw back, and so forth. Far from being miraculous (which the text implies, the strength of Israel growing when the staff of God was raised and faltering when it was lowered), this was merely a natural event. Moses’ arms being held up in a cruciform manner by Aaron and Hur was not a foreshadowing of Christ (as I’ve heard) but just an example of people helping people, which is why we’re all here at Mass. Oh, and don’t forget to pray.

He talked a lot about prayer, eviscerating the rather shocking parable of the Importunate Widow and domesticating it so that we all understood the message: “Pray. And come to Mass to be with one another.”

Then, when the Liturgy of the Eucharist began, he not only improvised the “Pray, brothers and sisters” part (#29 here), but made up something that was wildly and strangely unrelated to anything I’d ever heard from the altar. No mention of “sacrifice” of course, but a totally ad-libbed thing that made no sense. So I figured I’d better follow along in the missal. And here’s what I noticed.

[NB] His liturgical abuse was not accidental and merely an expression of a kind of misplaced enthusiasm, but it was, like the sexual abuse scandal in the Church, very deliberate, specific and precise. [Get that? It is, in some – many? – cases calculated. It is predatory. It preys on innocence and trust. It twists what is good and true and beautiful. It is psychologically unstable and immature. It is probably not curable. It must be extirpated.]

For despite his homily’s mundane emphasis on the need for prayer, every time the words “we pray” came up in the text, he deliberately skipped them. Every time Jesus was called the Son, he refused to say “son” and either skipped the words or made up something of his own. There were other patterns I noticed, and each was the result of a kind of careful forethought and deliberate planning: for he skipped only certain words and said only certain others. This man was no simple fool, carried away with a kind of “Spirit of Vatican II” sense of innovation. Soft spoken, harmless and dull as this priest seemed to be, he had an agenda and was exercising it.

Then we came to the words of consecration, almost nothing that came from his lips matched what was printed on the page.

[…]

A post like this makes me wonder about something. Wouldn’t it be interesting to take a look at dioceses were liturgical abuse abounds unchecked over decades by bishops and then match that up with instances of other kinds of abuse? I don’t know how one would go about studying such a thing, how one would collect statistics that are other than anecdotal. But I have an inkling that something is there.

Putting that connection aside now, this post provides food for thought for the next time you hear some priest screwing around with the texts of Mass. Sirens and flags should go off in your head.

Why is he screwing around with the texts? Really, why? What is his agenda? What is he deliberately or systematically changing and why?