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{]:¬)

QUAERITUR: Can I eat insect parts on Fridays?

Posted on 15 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Since the topic came up elsewhere, I thought it a good idea to revive this question from a reader and repost it:

From a reader:

Do insect products count as meat products, and therefore prohibited on Fridays and other days of abstinence. I have heard of some instances where it may be used in artificial color products. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, Mr. Reinfield, they are not counted as meat products. You may eat all the bugs you can find, also on Fridays!

Even on days of fasting you should be able to eat lots of insects, since it takes quite a few to make even a small portion… depending on the insects, of course.

Some dyes were/are derived from bugs, such as cochineal. Muslims, I believe, avoid it because of its origins but Jews allow it.

Artificial food color, however, would be accidental to any food you would eat. It is an incidental element.

On the other hand, FD&C Red #5 has ever been one of my favorite ingredients in prepared foods, and so in penitential spirit I give those up for Lent.

So, now that people know we can eat bugs as we please, I expect to hear that you are asking for bug-out bags, not doggy-bags.

And, yes, we should be preparing bug-out bags and bugs might just keep some of us alive at TEOTWAWKI.

Appropriate on the very day a big asteriod is buzzing your planet. HERE. (As I write, in just a few minutes, as a matter of fact. 19:24 UTC (2:24 p.m. EST/11:24 a.m. PST. And let’s not even start in on Russia!)

Which, as Preserved Killick would add, I am reminded by a scene in Patrick O’Brian’s The Fortune of War in which the Captain and officers have a little fun with Dr. Maturin.

“Two weevils crept from the crumbs. ‘You see those weevils, Stephen?’ said Jack solemnly.

I do.’

Which would you choose?’

There is not a scrap of difference. Arcades ambo. They are the same species of curculio, and there is nothing to choose between them.’

But suppose you had to choose?’

Then I should choose the right-hand weevil; it has a perceptible advantage in both length and breadth.’

There I have you,’ cried Jack. ‘You are bit – you are completely dished. Don’t you know that in the Navy you must always choose the lesser of two weevils? Oh ha, ha, ha, ha!”

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Lighter fare, Linking Back, O'Brian Tags, Our Catholic Identity, Preserved Killick | Tagged abstinence, Capt. Aubrey, Dr. Maturin, friday, Friday abstinence, insects, LENT, Patrick O'Brian, wevils
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Re-Elect Pope Benedict SWAG!!

And just for nice…

Some recent posts, since things are happening fast.

And also…

Many thanks to the people who have sent Kindle books from my Kindle wishlist. Inter alia … I got some material about exorcism that I have been wanting to read for a while now.

I am deeply grateful for contributions through the donation button on the side bar and to those of you who subscribe to give every month. My income took a big hit last month, so the donations are now a bigger percent of my budget. I remember you in prayer and at the altar. On that note, I will say Mass for benefactors on FRIDAY 15 Feb (in the late afternoon). The list of donation button users so far:

As of 15 Feb 21:39 GMT:

RB, CBM, MF, DM, MH, DP, MJC, Fr. LT, DP, AM, HE, TD, MF, JDK, AM, MMcG, AMacB, LL, AP, ER, LS, CO’C, SJS, SA, GC, JMcG, JF, JB, RMcE, JEM, MF, EA, JW, BB, MK, MH, BD, SM, KB, TM, CL, AT, PK, JB, NMM, JW, MC, JEJ, NF, LV, PP, DM, PAL, AN, KS, JP, LL, AM, JN, BB

And thanks to the kind soul who sent the Leatherman and the spiffy rear slide cover plate! Veritas et aequitas! Your name wasn’t included on the packing slip, alas. [I just received a note that it was from TS and his wife and daughters.]

I have another list for books and things from the wishlists, which is not at the moment at hand. Also, some things come in without any indication of who sent them. But the angels and saints know who you are!

I am going to have to go to Rome, sooner or later. This papal resignation and the impending conclave may change my life around a bit. I will put here, again, the waving flag button for donations I will earmark for travel, though I will probably issue a plea soon.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Thinking about Pope Benedict – a lenten Friday papal musical interlude

Posted on 15 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

One of the last complete works that Wolfgang Mozart wrote was his Clarinet Concerto in A (K. 622).

There is a lovely symmetry in this being one of Pope Benedict’s favorite works of his favorite composer.

Since I was a bit down this morning, and since some of you may be too, I thought this would be an uplifting treat. If you have never heard this concerto before, you really need to take 28:31 and listen. Everyone ought to know this work. How does one get through life not knowing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto?

Posted in Benedict XVI, Lighter fare | Tagged clarinet, W.A. Mozart
14 Comments

Lent, Alligators and You

Posted on 15 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Someone sent me a copy of a letter written by the Archbishop of New Orleans to a member of his flock about eating alligator during Lent. The answer is “yes”. You may eat alligator during Lent.

This is old news to readers of this blog, of course. Last year I posted this, which ought to have settled the whole thing:

QUAERITUR: Abstinentia de carne lacertina aut crocodrillina

Ex lectoris e-pistulis extractum:

Reverendo patro Ioanni Zuhlsdorfo discipulus C. salutem et commemorationem in precibus suis. Gratias meas, sivis, ob opum tuam tibi agere volo. [Acceptae.] Mihi, catholico iuveni et discipulo in collegio liberalum artis et liberalum (aut impudicarum) mentum, scripturae tuae magnam auxilium fuerunt. Mox Ludovicianam meabo. Quaeritur: Sineturne corpus alligatoris feria VI in Quadregesima sine violando abstinentiam Quadragesimae edere?

Ossificatus manualista impoenitens respondeo de paginis Compendii Theologiae Moralis (Sabetti-Barrett) n. 331, :

CLICK TO BUY

Nomine carnis veniunt omnia animalia in terra viventia ac respirantia, ut communiter admittunt theologi ex regula tradita a S. Thoma vel, ut S. Alphonsus innuit, n. 1011, animalia quae sanguinem habent calidum; vel illud quod consuetudo regionis ut carnem habet; vel, si nec consuetudo praesto sit, dubium solvi potest considerando mentem Ecclesiae in sanciendo delectu ciborum, ut comprimendae ac minuendae carnis concupiscentiae per salutarem abstinetiam consuleret; examinetur, an huiusmodi animal simile sit aut dissimile iis quorum esus interdictus est et an illius carnes humano corpori validius nutriendo et roborando idoneae dignoscantur; et si ita appareat, ista caro inter vetitas est ponenda. Benedict XIV., De syn. dioec., lib.11, c. 5, n. 12. Haec quatuor multum deservient omni dubitationi solvendae.

Crocodrilli et lacertae inter reptilia sunt et amphibia.

Edi ergo possunt feriis sextis et tempore Quadragesimae.

Omnibus tamen diebus ab eis edimur.

So, there you have it.

You can eat alligator and crocodile on Fridays of Lent.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Lighter fare, Linking Back | Tagged abstinence, alligator, crocodile, Friday abstinence, Fridays, LENT
32 Comments

Putting the Pope and Church bashers in perspective

Posted on 15 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I understand that the execrable Garry Wills – who is capitalizing on the papal news to sell another book full of distortions and lies – had an interview somewhere in which he predictably bashed Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church.

What sort of judgment will descend on those who make a living by hating on the Pope and the Church?

Yesterday I read something from the Catholic League which puts quislings like Wills in perspective.

Assessing the Pope’s Record

February 14, 2013
• Garry Wills [ex-seminarian]: “What we really need are no priests.”
• James Carroll [ex-priest]: The pope “has seen only a solemn obligation to defend the church.” [Italic added.]
• Richard Sipe [ex-priest]: “Certainly, he did a lot, but it was all reactionary.” [Italic added.]
• Daniel Maguire [ex-priest]: The “scandal of the papacy [is] one of the last absolute monarchies in a democratizing world.”
• Ronald Lauder, president, World Jewish Congress: “The papacy of Benedict elevated Catholic-Jewish relations to an unprecedented level.”
• Abraham Foxman, national director, ADL: “He [the pope] was good for the Jews.”
• Rabbi Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazic rabbi: Benedict’s papacy exhibited “the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate.”
• Imam Hassan Qazwini, Islamic Center of America: “I have so much admiration for the pope, for being honest and humble.”
• Nihad Awad, national director, Council on American-Islamic Relations: “We offer the American Muslim community’s best wishes to Pope Benedict XVI.”
• Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary general, World Evangelical Alliance: “I appreciate his [the pope’s] courage of ideas…and his boldness in warning us of the dangers of moral relativism….”
• Rev. R. Albert Mohler, president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “Pope Benedict has offered a brave and intelligent defense of truth against a relativist tide.”
Bill Donohue, who put this together, opines: “I could offer many other examples, but the point is obvious: embittered ex-seminarians and ex-priests suffer not only from profound anger—ultimately directed at themselves—but their perception of Catholicism makes them look twisted in comparison to the sentiments of Jews, Muslims, Protestants, and others.”

Posted in Benedict XVI, Liberals | Tagged anti-catholicism, catholic quislings, Garry Wills
24 Comments

Another way to destroy the Church where you are.

Posted on 15 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Hell’s Bible has a piece about one way some people are trying to “revitalize” the Catholic Church in Brazil. Rather, this is how Hell’s Bible and those who work for the enemy against the Church want the Church to try to revitalize the faith. Such a path would enervate the Church, not revitalize her.

A Laboratory for Revitalizing Catholicism

RIO DE JANEIRO — At one new megachurch in São Paulo, a Roman Catholic priest who was a personal trainer before joining the clergy energetically belts out songs, rock-star style, before 25,000 worshipers. Other Brazilian priests are donning cowboy hats and crooning country tunes at Mass or writing best-selling advice tomes emblazoned with heartthrob photographs on the cover.

If there is any place that captures the challenges facing Catholicism around the world it is Brazil, the country with the largest number of Catholics and a laboratory of sorts for the church’s strategies for luring followers back into the fold.

Reflecting the shifting religious landscape that Pope Benedict XVI’s successor will contend with, Brazil rivals the United States as the nation with the most Pentecostals, as a Catholic monolith gives way amid a surge in evangelical Protestant churches.

[…]

Then there is the array of singing priests who belong to what is called Brazil’s Charismatic Catholic Renovation, a movement seeking to invigorate Catholic services with the kind of liveliness that parishioners often find at other churches. These priests have been embraced by the Vatican, but only to a point.

The most famous among them, the Rev. Marcelo Rossi, a 45-year-old former personal trainer, has sold more than 12 million CDs and has celebrated Mass in a soccer stadium filled with tens of thousands of worshipers. Still, he complained about feeling “humiliated” during Benedict’s visit to Brazil in 2007 when Catholic leaders prevented him from even getting close to the pope.

In an extension of the charismatic practices, some Catholic priests now perform “liberation Masses” resembling group exorcisms and welcome congregants who speak in tongues. While such aspects may be frowned upon by some in the Roman Catholic establishment, the charismatic movement has clearly struck a chord among many worshipers.

“Through this movement, many people are finding themselves again inside the church,” said Almir Belarmino, 53, a technician at a sewage treatment company who was one of 1,200 people attending a retreat here over the Carnival holiday for people in the charismatic movement.

“Why not dance in the place where the presence of God is so great?” Mr. Belarmino asked. “Joy and excitement are part of the worship we do.”

Catholic priests’ blending of new practices into their services is nothing new in Brazil. Many people, for instance, say they are Catholic while practicing African-derived religions like Candomblé, which merges the identities of Roman Catholic saints and African deities. “Religious practice in Brazil is often highly hybridized,” said Stephen Selka, an expert on African diaspora religions at Indiana University.

[…]

When people start talking about S. American candidates for the papacy, remember this article.

Maranatha.

Posted in Liberals, New Evangelization | Tagged Benedict XVI's resignation, Brazil, Hell's Bible, papacy, S. America
81 Comments

Z-Swag “in the wild”!

Posted on 15 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I received a nice photo of some Z-Swag “in the wild”! His blog is HERE.

Click HERE for swag!

In the meantime, perhaps the Holy Father needs something:

Posted in In The Wild, Just Too Cool | Tagged In The Wild, Z-Swag
5 Comments

A dialogue of Our Lord and the editior of the National Schismatic Reporter

Posted on 14 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My friend Fr. Martin Fox, distinguished priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, on his blog The Bonfire of the Vanities has today an instructive dialogue between Our Lord and the editor of the Fishwrap, the National Schismatic Reporter, Tom Fox (Greek ἀλώπηξ – alōpēx).

Read his worthy intro, but here is the dialogue:

Jesus: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” [Luke 9:23-25]

Tom Roberts, editor of the NCR: “Um, Rabbi, that won’t sell. That’s not where people are today.”

Lord Jesus: “What? Won’t sell?”

Roberts: “That taking up your cross business. Don’t you think you should adapt your message to the way people live today?”

Jesus: “I didn’t come to adapt the Word of God to the world; I came to call the world to the Word of God.”

Roberts: “Well, the Jesus I know and serve loved people and didn’t impose a lot of rules on people!”

Jesus: “OK, well, there are many who claim to speak for God. The Father sent me. I have come to testify to the Truth.”

Roberts: “What is truth?”

Jesus: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Roberts: “Huh. That’s pretty pre-Vatican II stuff there, Rabbi. People won’t like it.”

Jesus: “What are you talking about? ‘Won’t like it’? Dude, they’re gonna crucify me. Have you been listening to anything I’m saying?”

Roberts: “Hey, this has been nice, but King Herod’s having a “sensual spirituality” seminar this afternoon, so I’ve gotta book out of here. But seriously, you’re gonna need to rethink all this. I’ll be happy to help you, let me know.”

Jesus: “Hm? Sorry, I was just praying. For you.”

I can see connecting between Luke, Our Lord, Fox and Herod:

καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς πορευθέντες εἴπατε τῇ ἀλώπεκι ταύτῃ ἰδοὺ ἐκβάλλω δαιμόνια καὶ ἰάσεις ἀποτελῶ σήμερον καὶ αὔριον καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ τελειοῦμαι

Ah… the National Schismatic Reporter….

Posted in Liberals, Lighter fare, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged Fishwrap, Fox, Herod, National Schismatic Reporter
7 Comments

Benedict XVI on Vatican II: Council of the Fathers v. Council of the Media

Posted on 14 February 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today during his annual meeting with the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, of which Benedict is still the Bishop, the Holy Father spoke about the Second Vatican Council. Not my translation, but my emphases and comments:

[T]here was the Council of the Fathers – the true Council – but there was also the Council of the media. It was almost a Council in and of itself, and the world perceived the Council through them, through the media. [Read The Rhine Flows Into The Tiber.] So the immediately efficiently Council that got thorough to the people, was that of the media, not that of the Fathers. And while the Council of the Fathers evolved within the faith, it was a Council of the faith that sought the intellect, that sought to understand and try to understand the signs of God at that moment, that tried to meet the challenge of God in this time to find the words for today and tomorrow. So while the whole council – as I said – moved within the faith, as fides quaerens intellectum, the Council of journalists did not, naturally, take place within the world of faith but within the categories of the media of today, that is outside of the faith, with different hermeneutics. It was a hermeneutic of politics. [Like that of the National Schismatic Reporter and The Bitter Pill and others.]

The media saw the Council as a political struggle, a struggle for power between different currents within the Church. [As most of the newsies for liberal outlets, and liberal nuns, do today.] It was obvious that the media would take the side of whatever faction best suited their world. There were those who sought a decentralization of the Church, power for the bishops and then, through the Word for the “people of God”, the power of the people, the laity. There was this triple issue: the power of the Pope, then transferred to the power of the bishops and then the power of all … popular sovereignty. Naturally they saw this as the part to be approved, to promulgate, to help.

This was the case for the liturgy: there was no interest in the liturgy as an act of faith, but as a something to be made understandable, similar to a community activity, something profane. [Why, O why, Holy Father, can’t you stay on a while longer and talk like this more often?] And we know that there was a trend, which was also historically based, that said: “Sacredness is a pagan thing, possibly even from the Old Testament. [Boooo!] In the New Testament the only important thing is that Christ died outside: that is, outside the gates, that is, in the secular world”. Sacredness ended up as profanity even in worship: worship is not worship but an act that brings people together, communal participation and thus participation as activity. [Classic Ratzinger.] And these translations, trivializing the idea of the Council, were virulent in the practice of implementing the liturgical reform, born in a vision of the Council outside of its own key vision of faith. And it was so, also in the matter of Scripture: Scripture is a book, historical, to treat historically and nothing else, and so on.

And we know that this Council of the media was accessible to all. So, dominant, more efficient, this Council created many calamities, so many problems, so much misery, in reality: seminaries closed, convents closed, the liturgy was trivialized … and the true Council has struggled to materialize, to be realized: the virtual Council was stronger than the real Council. But the real strength of the Council was present and slowly it has emerged and is becoming the real power which is also true reform, true renewal of the Church. [Marshall Plan…]

It seems to me that 50 years after the Council, we see how this Virtual Council is breaking down, getting lost and the true Council is emerging with all its spiritual strength. And it is our task, in this Year of Faith, starting from this Year of Faith, to work so that the true Council with the power of the Holy Spirit is realized and Church is really renewed. We hope that the Lord will help us.

I, retired with my prayer, will always be with you, and together we will move ahead with the Lord in certainty. The Lord is victorious! Thank you.