New Secretary of State coming… soon

Posted on 9 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My spidey-sense suggests that there may be an appointment of a new Secretary of State very soon.  It is safe to say “soon”.  How about maybe as soon as tomorrow… well… today (it’s just after midnight where I am).

This appointment is important.  It will signal what the Holy Father intends to do with, for example, curial reform and also to whom he is listening now that he is getting his hands on the reins of government.

UPDATE 9 April

Well… I was wrong about the day, wasn’t I.

Let’s find out how many more days I’ll be wrong!  o{];¬)

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
31 Comments

Comment Registration, Blank Pages, Banning, Thanks, and You

Posted on 9 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In order to comment here, readers must register and I must approve the registration.

This is for two reasons.

First, were I not to place this restriction, the combox would be a demonically crazy place.  My traffic here would go to the stars, but that’s not worth the trouble and the evil result.

I had anonymous posting here for a while. It attracted evil blatteroons and the reason-challenged, low-information types who contribute so much to the internet.

Second, the blog is under constant attack by spammers (may they roast in the deep cinders of hell, as Dr. Maturin would say).

The registration form includes a place where I ask people to write about themselves.  That is an important tool for me. I use it to sort out the well-meaning from nefarious ne’er-do-wells.

This morning I sorted through a couple dozen registrations and rejected a half dozen or so as obvious vile spammers and a few as too vague for me to be comfortable with at a quick glance.

It may be that some well-meaning people don’t get that that part of the registration is important.  Thus, they might write something like “not much to say”, or “I like peanut butter”.  If that is the sum total of what is included, I do not approve the registration. I do not send a note saying that it was rejected.

Just as you, I have only so much time and energy and no one is helping me with this.  Therefore, I have to place limits and I sometimes have to be a bit draconian.

Many of you veterans here know all this, but there are a lot of new readers.

One more thing.

It may be that some of you have checked into the blog and found only a blank page.

I installed a new plugin which helps cut down spam attacks by checking incoming IPs against lists of known spamming slubberdegullions.  It really helps me and I can’t imagine doing without it now.

It may be that your IP falls in a range similar to those of known spammers.  I can “white list” your IP if you have problems.

I also occasionally ban people by IP address. These are usually blasphemous, profane, sacrilegious jerks, the irremediably stupid, people who seem determined to create lots of work for me, or the simply annoying for whom I as a sinner lack the charity and patience to deal with.  I’m just sayin’. I have my bad days too.

Seriously bashing Pope Francis will get you banned here too.

If you have a problem getting to the blog from one location or computer, but not from your mobile phone or from another place, drop me a line. If you know yourself to be innocent of the aforementioned unwelcome chicanery, I might be able to white list your IP address and get you back to the fold.

And now that that is out of the way.

Please do the following.

  • Buy some Mystic Monk coffee right now.  You’ll be glad you did.
  • Use my amazon search box whenever you shop online.
  • Send a donation. I’ll be grateful.
  • Look at Your Urgent Prayer Requests (top menu).
  • Click on the WCC ad and look at the CNS feed.
  • Follow me on Twitter.

Speaking of donations, many thanks to…

JB, RMcE, SDeS, SS, DD, ET, JPG, MK, RC, MC, NS, CD, ML, FH, RA, MF, GSM, CMB, AN, MP-P, BY, JB, MS, SA, BB, MK, C’OC, RD, DN, EL, JMJ, SM, SP, SV, SD, JV, CS, CG, JL, KS, AC, JV, BC, FW, AW, FV, AN, DK, JB, CM, JB, ER, PG, RA, SZ, SN, JL, ER, JW, MR, LS, KA, MD, LW, VS, Fr. RH, VW, JE, NA, MZ, GMcI, JN, DM, JN, AMcC, WH, CD, MR, CG, SS, BA, HS, DS, RM, MS, DW, MM, CP, TE, MCB, KL, GMcI, FN, KL, KL, NM, LC, AM, PAP, DP, AJG, LH, SS, CO’C, LS, MF, ZA, M-MC, SC, SS, RMcE, JB, PL UPDATE: EP (Rome), CS (Rome), BY (Rome), TMcG (Rome), EC, MK, FH (Rome), CH (Rome), AD (Rome), NA (monthly), MB (Rome), LM (Rome), MH (Rome), CG, AE (Rome), JK (Rome), CWvZ, MR (Rome), TE (Rome), WMR (Rome), LA (Rome), MG (Rome), LG (Rome), CEF, unknown, NW (Rome),

Also, thanks to the person who sent the amazon gift card, which came to today.  There was no packing slip, so I don’t know who you are.  And thanks to CEF for the DVD of Babette’s Feast!  I’m looking forward to it.

I periodically say Mass for the intention of my benefactors (which always also includes DY, GS, and KA).  I will do so again on Wednesday 10 April, in the morning.

Also, thanks to you who have sent Kindle books or things from my amazon wishlist.  For example, I received a great new pad for when I clean my Glock, having a diagram of all the parts.  I haven’t actually taken it completely apart yet, but I suppose I’ll have to do so some day.  Moreover, occasionally it seems as if something was ordered from my wish list, but it wasn’t sent to me.  I don’t know how that works, exactly, but it is a bit tedious.  That is why sometimes I put things back on the list.  Again, I just sayin’.

Comment Registration, Blank Pages, Banning, Thanks, and You

I’m planning to go back to Rome at the end of June for a very important conference on matters traditional. It is described as: “Sacra Liturgia 2013: Rome, 25-28 June 2013 – An international conference to study, promote and renew the appreciation of liturgical formation and celebration and its foundation for the mission of the Church.”

I think it is important to participate in these conferences, especially at the dawn of this new pontificate, if you get my drift.  We need to close ranks and roll up the sleeves.  Thus, I will be depending on your donations so that I can go. By myself, I can’t do it. With your help I can. The little waving Vatican flag is a donation link, earmarked for Rome expenses.

In any event, thanks to everyone.  I am grateful and I remember you in prayer.  Many of you were especially good to me when I was having my computer disaster in Rome around the time of the conclave. That experience was both supremely frustrating and also truly consoling.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, O'Brian Tags |
Comments Off on Comment Registration, Blank Pages, Banning, Thanks, and You

Fishwrap’s Winters responds

Posted on 8 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fishwrap's Winters respondsOver the National Schismatic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters has responded to something I wrote HERE.

Winters is mostly wrong about things, but he occasionally right and, when he is, I have happily said so here.

Winters opens with a little snark – fair enough – and then gets into it:

Zulhsdorf [sic] then opines, “Let’s see how the editors of the National Schismatic Reporter (akaFishwrap) and The Bitter Pill (aka The Bitter Pill… er um… The Tablet)  report on this one… if they mention anything about it all.” Well, I am not an editor, but I do write for both NCR and for the Tablet, so I will take the bait.

I’m reminded of the story of Paddy the Irishman who sees a crowd around two guys beating the tar out of each in the street.  When he pushes through the onlookers he shouts, “Is this a private fight or can anyone join?”

The rest of Winter’s response is actually not as dreadful as you might expect, though I sense that, after stating that “I do not think a catholic can, in good conscience, support abortion…” his “… but we can have many and varied positions on how to confront the evil of abortion, always alert to the fact that in the political realm, sometimes politicians pay lip service to a goal” is pretty much an appeal to the sort of seamless-garment approach used by some to excuse those who shove unborn under the bus for the sake of various social justice goals.

I’ll also give him points for writing:

I see this in my own life as I have gradually shed those attitudes and beliefs that were in contradiction with the Church’s faith. I have come to understand that when my initial perspectives are at odds with the Church, I should give the benefit of the doubt to the Church.

Would I have preferred “religious assent” or “submission of mind and will” rather than just “benefit of the doubt”?  Sure.  Still, if this is the direction he’s heading, I’m all for it.  As you might expect there’s also a ‘but’ involved immediately after.  Coming from a writer for the non-Catholic weekly Fishwrap, this is not bad.

Bottom line: I wrote. Winters responded.  That’s a start.

BTW… if you do go over there, be sure to check out the comments under Winter’s piece.  They’re a hoot!

Posted in Liberals, Linking Back, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill | Tagged , ,
32 Comments

HELP! A liturgy nerd is building a digital-calendar-generator for the TLM

Posted on 8 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Can you brilliant liturgy nerds help this… liturgy nerd cum computer geek?

Thanks!

From a reader:

Hi father Z!

I have spent the last two weeks constructing a digital-calendar-generator for the TLM/-62 (in Swedish, with celebrations according to the calendar found inside the new TLM handbook – that by the way even has a foreword by our bishop). It can now generate the entire liturgical calendar for any given year for at least the next 200 years (if I’ve constructed it correctly).

Now I’d be very happy to receive any help to correct the details in the generator – from you, someone you could direct me to, or through your blog commenters (if you choose to forward this to your readership).

As I am now finalising the generator I have come to doubt that I have treated the lower-rank celebrations correctly.

The printed calendar that I’ve taken my information from presents the lower rankings using the old system (S, Sd, D, Dm) and explains that all of them except S become ‘3rd class’ in the “new” JXXIII system. What I wonder is:

1. When a Simplex (or are they supposed to be referred to as ‘4th class’?) falls during Epiphanytide or ‘after Easter’

a. Is a proper liturgical color to be used or is the color of the season to be used (the latter is how I have interpreted Commemorations to work)?

b. is it a mandatory or optional celebration (like ‘opt. Mem’ in the new rite)?

2. If the same kind of celebration falls during Advent or Lent:

a & b as above

c. Does its rank somehow reduce to Commemoration (or do they even disappear) because of the higher rank of Lenten/Advent ferias?

3. Are ‘3rd class’ celebrations ever affected in other ways than being stricken (because of collision with a higher ranked celebration)?

My questions probably sound like I don’t know a thing about these things, which is not false – I mainly want to have a working digital calendar for the old rite, since I am a liturgical nerd, not expert :)

Pax, and forgive my bad English

Okay, friends!  Get to work!

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged ,
20 Comments

The Patristic Rosary Project Revisited – Annunciation

Posted on 8 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Some years ago, I posted a series of entries here wherein I looked at the mysteries of the Rosary through some quotations by Fathers of the Church.  Here is what I wrote about the Annunciation.

_________

Because October is dedicated in a special way to the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, during the month I, as a dedicated patristiblogger, will work my way through the Mysteries of the Rosary offering some comments from the Fathers of the Church.  Let’s jump right in!

The Patristic Rosary Project Revisited - Annunciation1st Joyful Mystery: The Annuniciation

Commenting on Luke 1:26-38, the announcment of Jesus’ birth, St. Ambrose of Milan (+397) makes a connection between Mary and the Church.  :

And, therefore, the Evangelist, who had undertaken to prove the incorrupt mystery of the incarnation, thought it fruitless to pursue evidence of Mary’s virginity, lest he be seen as a defender of the Virgin rather than an advocate of the mystery.  Surely, when he taught that Joseph was righteous, he adequately declared that he could not violate the temple of the Holy Spirit, the mother of the Lord, the womb of the mystery.  We have learned the lineage of the Truth.  We have learned its counsel.  Let us learn its mystery.  Fittingly is she epsoused, but virgin, because she prefigues the Church which is undefiled (cf. Eph 5:27) yet wed.  A virgin conceived us of the Spirit, a Virgin brings us forth without travail.  And thus perhaps Mary, wed to one, was filled by Another, because also the separate Churches are indeed filled by the Spirit and by grace and yet are joined to the appearance of a temporal Priest.  [Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 2.6-7]

The Marian thought of Ambrose has an ecclesiological dimension.  The Second Vatican Council cited this important passage in Lumen gentium, the dogmatic constitution on the Church:

63. By reason of the gift and role of divine maternity, by which she is united with her Son, the Redeemer, and with His singular graces and functions, the Blessed Virgin is also intimately united with the Church. As St. Ambrose taught, the Mother of God is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ.  For in the mystery of the Church, which is itself rightly called mother and virgin, the Blessed Virgin stands out in eminent and singular fashion as exemplar both of virgin and mother.  By her belief and obedience, not knowing man but overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, as the new Eve she brought forth on earth the very Son of the Father, showing an undefiled faith, not in the word of the ancient serpent, but in that of God’s messenger. The Son whom she brought forth is He whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, namely the faithful, in whose birth and education she cooperates with a maternal love.

Because of Mary’s “Fiat mihi“, we can be members of the Church with Mary as our Mother.  Our baptism integrates us into this wondrous bond.

St. Leo the Great (+461) in one of his glorious sermons says:

Each one is a partaker of this spiritual origin in regeneration.  To every one, when he is reborn, the water of baptism is like the Virgin’s womb, for the same Holy Spirit fills the font, who filled the Virgin, that the sin, which that sacred conception overthrew, may be taken away by this mystical washing.  [s. 24.3]

Theophanes the BrandedThis is not merely a Western insight.  While it is a little late for our patristic interests, here is a snip from fascinating Kontakion of the Annunciation by the 9th century Theophanes the Branded:

The Theotokos said: Thou bringest me good tidings of divine joy: that Immaterial Light, in His abundant compassion, will be united to a material body.and now thou criest out to me: all-pure one, blessed is the fruit of thy womb!
The Archangel said: Rejoice, lady; rejoice, most pure virgin! Rejoice, God-containing vessel! Rejoice, candlestick of the light, the restoration of Adam, and the deliverance of Eve! Rejoice, holy mountain, shining sanctuary! Rejoice, bridal chamber of immortality!

The Theotokos said: The descent of the Holy Spirit has purified my soul; it has sanctified my body: it has made me a temple containing God, a divinely adorned tabernacle, a living sanctuary, and the pure Mother of Life.

The Archangel said: I see thee as a lamp with many lights; a bridal chamber made by God! Spotless maiden, as an ark of gold, receive now the Giver of the Law, who through thee has been pleased to deliver mankind’s corrupted nature!

Here the Blessed Virgin represents the Temple, the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant, images of the Church.

Posted in Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Patristiblogging | Tagged , , , ,
6 Comments

Margaret Thatcher – RIP

Posted on 8 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister, has died. She was 87. May she rest in peace. Pray for her.

She was one of the pivotal figures of the 20th century. She played a role, along with John Paul II and Pres. Reagan, in bringing down the Soviet bloc.

Damien Thompson posted a video of Thatcher’s last appearance at the Prime Minister’s Question time on 27 November 1990.  I’ll include it, below.

If only we had politicians in these USA who could speak like her.   Agree with her… disagree… she was something.  Instead… who do we have?

If you are too young to remember Lady Thatcher, take some time to watch her at work.

Play video

She met Benedict XVI, by the way:

Margaret Thatcher - RIP

I recall that she was also present when Benedict gave his address in Westminster Hall.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
61 Comments

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 8 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTSPlease use the sharing buttons!  Thanks!

Registered or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Many requests are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand.  We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below. You have to be registered here to be able to post.

Finally, I have a serious personal petition.

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
46 Comments

READER FEEDBACK: Going to confession and first Traditional Latin Mass

Posted on 8 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader down-under:

Thank you for the work you do as I have learnt much from your blog. I have been to Confession twice recently, having put it off until the constant encouragement from you helped me to go.

Tonight I attended an EF mass for the first time, something else that you and your readers have helped me with. It was probably the largest number of people in their 20s, my age group, that I have seen at a mass outside of ‘youth events’. [Sounds right.]

I came across the following in an article in our local Catholic paper and I hope it will make you smile. The article discussed the large numbers of people attending Holy Week and Easter services this year.

“Wynnum parish priest Capuchin Father John Spiteri was “absolutely delighted” by the parish response to Easter, particularly as regards Confession.

“As many as 50 people attended Mass every day during Holy Week and this kept building, plus myself and another priest were flat out hearing Confessions especially on Holy Saturday morning from 10 till 12.30pm,” he said. “

If you hear them they will come.

This isn’t rocket science, friends.

Fathers!  Hear confessions!

Getting into the box could be the most powerful contribution you can make to promote the New Evangelization.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, GO TO CONFESSION, HONORED GUESTS, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Reader Feedback | Tagged , ,
4 Comments

Archbp. Vigneron: Catholics who push same-sex marriage should not receive Communion

Posted on 8 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A regular commentator here, the distinguish canonist Ed Peters, was quoted in an interesting article in the Detroit Free Press.

Archbp. Vigneron made a clear statement about receiving Holy Communion if you advocate same-sex marriage.

Archbp. Vigneron: Catholics who push same-sex marriage should not receive CommunionThis is in the Freep:

Detroit-area Catholic leaders urge gay marriage supporters to skip Communion

A Detroit professor and legal adviser to the Vatican says Catholics who promote gay marriage should not try to receive holy Communion, a key part of Catholic identity.

And the archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, said Sunday that Catholics who receive Communion while advocating gay marriage would “logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury.”  [Let’s use the other word: lie.]

The comments of Vigneron and Edward Peters, who teaches Catholic canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, are [Get this…] part of a polarizing discussion about gay marriage that echoes debate over whether politicians who advocate abortion rights should receive Communion. [I’d say the conclusion is obvious.]

In a post on his blog last week, Peters said that Catholic teachings make it clear that marriage is between one man and one woman. And so, “Catholics who promote ‘same-sex marriage’ act contrary to” Catholic law “and should not approach for holy Communion,” he wrote. “They also risk having holy Communion withheld from them … being rebuked and/or being sanctioned.”

Peters didn’t specify a Catholic politician or public figure in his post. But he told the Free Press that a person’s “public efforts to change society’s definition of marriage … amount to committing objectively wrong actions.”  [The key here is “public”.  If you are out there as an activist in the public eye or a politician, and you are Catholic, and you are promoting or supporting things that are contrary to the laws of nature, God and His Church, then you must not approach for Communion and the proper ministers of Communion should deny it.]

Peters, an attorney and the Edmund Cardinal Szoka chairman at Sacred Heart, was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 to be a referendary of the Apostolic Sinatura, which means he helps advise the top judicial authority in the Catholic Church. Peters’ blog, “In Light of the Law,” is popular among Catholic experts, but not everyone agrees with his traditional views. [Who would they be? Liberals, open advocates of sodomy, progressivists, etc.]

“Most American bishops do not favor denying either politicians or voters Communion because of their positions on controversial issues,” said Thomas Reese, [lupus in fabula] a Catholic priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. Reese said that Peters’ views are “in a minority among American canon lawyers.”  [gratis asseritur, gratis negatur]

But, Reese added, “about 30 or so bishops have said that pro-choice or pro-gay-marriage Catholics should not present themselves for Communion.” [All that means is that 30 or so bishops have a backbone.]

Peters has said before that liberal Catholic Democrats, such as U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, should be denied Communion because of their statements and positions.

In 2011, Peters said that Cuomo should not receive Communion because he is an outspoken proponent of gay marriage. Last month, Peters said, “Pelosi suffers from one of the most malformed consciences in the annals of American Catholic politics or … she is simply hell-bent on using her Catholic identity to attack Catholic values at pretty much every opportunity.” [Sounds about right.]

In 2002, Catholic Jennifer Granholm’s support of abortion rights became an issue in the gubernatorial race a month before the election, when Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida released a letter saying Catholic politicians had a “special moral obligation” to oppose abortion.

Last month, Vigneron said at a news conference that maintaining views that oppose abortion and support traditional marriage are important for Catholics.

“Were we to abandon them, we would be like physicians who didn’t tell their patients that certain forms of behavior are not really in their best interest,” said Vigneron, who oversees 1.3 million Catholics in southeastern Michigan. [If a doctor must tell a patient that certain things are detrimental, how much more ought a priest or bishop give warnings are spiritual harm? The former cares for the body, which inevitably passes.  The later cares for the soul, which is eternal.]

On Sunday, Vigneron said about supporting gay marriage and receiving Communion: “For a Catholic to receive holy Communion and still deny the revelation Christ entrusted to the church is to try to say two contradictory things at once: ‘I believe the church offers the saving truth of Jesus, and I reject what the church teaches.’ In effect, they would contradict themselves. This sort of behavior would result in publicly renouncing one’s integrity and logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury.”

Vigneron said the church wants to help Catholics “avoid this personal disaster.”

Fr Z kudos to Archbishop Vigneron.

Hopefully other bishops will take heart at his example and make strong public statements such as this one.

Now we need some action as well.  Speaking up is an action, but there are other actions as well.

Posted in 1983 CIC can. 915, Brick by Brick, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , , ,
59 Comments

“Oh-all that I’ve ever loved!”

Posted on 7 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

"Oh-all that I've ever loved!"It is entirely possible that some of you have not read Victor Hugo’s book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  In French it is called simply Notre-Dame de Paris.  I darn near killed my brain one summer reading it in French.  I had read some Hugo in French before but this one… much harder.  I digress.  You don’t know the thing if you have only seen a movie, or to put it another way, “It don’t mean a thing, if you ain’t got that swing.”  Read the book.

Since it is the ultimate nickname Sunday, we might just pause to remind people that today is called “Quasimodo” Sunday from the first word of the Introit.
As I have written here before the Introit is from 1 Peter 2:2-3 which says:

“Like (Quasimodo – from a Latin Scripture translation that pre-dated the Vulgate by St Jerome) newborn babes (infantes), long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

So.

"Oh-all that I've ever loved!"The Victor Hugo character, poor Quasimodo, born with various defects, was abandoned as an infant in Notre Dame on this very Sunday… “Quasimodo” Sunday. He is raised by the Archdeacon of Notre Dame who makes him the bell-ringer of the Cathedral… which makes poor Q deaf. You may remember that the cathedral just had its bells renewed. I wrote about that HERE.

 

Poor Quasimodo.  His name, with the “quasi… almost”, indicates that he is only nearly human in the context of the society in which he was called by God to live.  But he utters some of the most human things, shows moments of the most poignant human agony ever penned.  Who in reading the book will forget his first, great, burning tear?  “Alors, dans cet œil jusque-là si sec et si brûlé, on vit rouler une grosse larme qui tomba lentement le long de ce visage difforme et longtemps contracté par le désespoir. C’était la première peut-être que l’infortuné eût jamais versée.”  His cries of “ASILE!”?  His pathetic, “Le hibou n’entre pas dans le nid de l’alouette.”

Are not we all at some time he?

 

Posted in Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SESSIUNCULA | Tagged , ,
30 Comments