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{]:¬)

Vote!

Posted on 6 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I did… before I left for Rome.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
74 Comments

How times have changed!

Posted on 6 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When I first came to Rome, lo those decades ago, it was nearly impossible to find any beautiful sacred vessel in the shops. Market forces, however, have shifted inventories decisively away from the hideous globs of who-knows-what gray metal covered with abstract representations of who-knows-what worthy of any pre-school classroom shelf.

Market forces have followed the workings of the Biological Solution.

The younger men, not inebriated or hung-over from the heady wine of those halcyon conciliar days, didn’t have that iconoclastic streak of the previous generation. They wanted – want – things that are worthy of the altar.

In any event, I am killing some time before an appointment. Here are some shots of stuff in windows of clerical shops near San Pietro.

There are the biological throwbacks, of course… or remnants?

Here is something nice. Host irons!

Posted in Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Biological Solution
5 Comments

Of Cats and Caesar and City Limits

Posted on 6 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I suspect a few of you are cat lovers. Check out The History Blog for a piece about cats in Rome and the crazy people who take care of them.

At the end of that piece is – oddly – something about the assassination of Julius Caesar. The last time I was in Rome, only about a month ago, I posted about the street which is thought to correspond to the area by portico of Pompey’s Theatre where Caesar was killed. There is an inscription along the building. It’s still there!

It is commonly said that Caesar was killed in the Senate, under a statue of Pompey the Great, with whom Julius had had a bit of a war. More accurately, Caesar was killed at a meeting of the Senate held at the chamber for Senate meetings Pompey had built at his mansion/theatre complex outside the Pomerium, the inner city border which no general with imperium could cross. The Senate could meet in the different places, including various temples. And since the old Senate house had burned down in a night of tumult (the Clodius and Milo affair) they were meeting out at Pompey’s old place.

Here is a shot of a surviving marker for the Pomerium from the time of the Emperor Claudius. I took this the other night while walking home from the Requiem Mass I posted about.

If memory serves, there is another Pomerium stone in the entry gate to S. Cecilia in Trastevere.

In any event, perhaps today is a good day to read about the removal of a leader, not with knives, bu by ballot.

Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged cats, Julius Caesar, pomerium, Pompey
9 Comments

I hope I feel this way…

Posted on 6 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

… when the polls close!

UPDATE HERE

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
13 Comments

For you pro-Obama Catholics, something to consider before voting

Posted on 5 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This came to my email from the Dignitatis Humanae Institute:

The much publicised claim of Planned Parenthood to not only provide abortions but also health services such as mammograms have been proven as false. Following President Obama’s repeated assertion of the claim [falsehood] in the second Presidential Debate, observers from all sides were quick to point out that Planned Parenthood owns no mammogram equipment and has never provided this service. Indeed, a Freedom of Information request from as far back as June confirmed this.

Planned Parenthood’s imaginary provision of such health services for women has been repeatedly used by abortion supporters to portray pro-life and pro-religious freedom activists as ‘anti-women’. Yet despite the feverous nature of this assertion in the past, even former director of Planned Parenthood, Abby Johnson, has stated that this has never been the case. To further demonstrate this, Abby Johnson, now a pro-life campaigner, coordinated a campaign where thousands of women made telephone calls to Planned Parenthood clinics across the country, requesting mammograms.

The dismantling of yet another false claim from Planned Parenthood is crucial in the battle to show that not only does Planned Parenthood end the lives of unborn children; they do not provide the health care which is referenced to justify the gross amount of federal funding which they receive. Abortion is their primary concern; this should not be forgotten. The cynical trick of portraying an abortion company as a health care provider demonstrates the deluge of false information used to create a smokescreen, a manipulative ploy designed to avoid the real issue.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and Dignitatis Humanae Institute Advisory Board Member, spoke on behalf of the Institute of his hope for truth and clarity going forward:

“This debate is not something that should be marginalised or in any way distorted. The deliberate choice of who lives and who dies is a fundamental issue that cannot be hidden away behind slogans – because it goes straight to the heart of the matter: do we recognise the inviolable human dignity of the most vulnerable and voiceless in our society or not? Going forward, we must seek to promote a culture of life, and ensure that expectant mothers receive the support and all of the counseling they require.”

Abortion is not a women’s issue. It is a fundamental issue of justice. The right to be born must be defended before any other legitimate right can be promoted. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that resistance to abortion on demand, especially funded by tax-payer money, makes you or anyone else a narrow “single issue voter”. Without supporting the right to life, no other post-birth right makes much sense. If someone can kill you before you are born, then someone can do anything else to you after you are born.

Pres. Obama and his administration aggressively push abortion around the world, not just in the USA. Pres. Obama even voted in favor of infanticide when he was an Illinois state senator. What sort of respect for human rights does that imply?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged abortion, Card. Burke, election, November 2012, Planned Parenthood, Pres. Obama, vote
20 Comments

Avanti! Vorwärts! Forward!

Posted on 5 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I heard that Obama was campaigning with Bruce Springsteen singing songs having to do with “Forward”. “Forward!”

Did you know that the newspaper of the Italian Communists after the war was called “Avanti!… Forward!”? I think a major German Communist paper was called… what was it again… “Vorwärts!” What could that mean?

UPDATE:

I got something wrong, above. The great Roman Fabrizio sent me a note with better information:

“Avanti!” was the name of the official organ of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) not the Communist party which was founded later by Gramsci and Togliatti in 1919 after their split from the PSI. The paper’s most successful editor was B. Mussolini between 1912 and 1914 when circulation of the paper went from 30k to 60k copies which was huge for the times

Vorwärts also was Socialist, not Communist.

I wonder, however, what influence Alinksy took from Gramsci.

Posted in The Drill | Tagged Forward, Pres. Obama
18 Comments

The aftermath of Sandy: How are you doing?

Posted on 5 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was pretty concerned about lots of you on the East coast of the USA when Sandy was coming.

I am not following American news much at the moment, but comments suggest that some people are just getting power back right about now. Some notes and comments I have read say that it took a long time to get services renewed and people were cold and hungry and pretty darn frustrated.

Do you see, friends, why I occasionally suggest that you have bug-out bags, with basics for a few days, and that you have plans and supplies?

On the dramatic scale, there could be global power-grid frying EMPs from coronal mass ejections. There could be economic crunches that destroy our infrastructure. There could be pandemics that bring us down like grass before scythes. We are probably due.

But on a smaller scale there are fires, accidents, earthquakes, local or large storms.

Things happen, friends. And sometimes things happen to you.

The last time I visited my mother in Florida, a tornado dropped down on the community she lives in. No warning. BAM! The damage field ripped through the neighborhood just two houses away.

It is pious sounding to say, “Oh, I’ll just leave it to God!”, but if you get injured or in a fix, someone has to take care of you, which takes resources from someone else. You wind up being a burden, or perhaps a distraction if not a burden. There also may be people who depend on you to help them.

I am not suggesting be a “prepper” (though it would be hard to fault you, so long as you don’t drive yourself into a total obsession). I am suggesting a little planning, a little packing, a little prudence.

And don’t just think in terms of stuff, though stuff is important. Think in terms of networking with others where you live. If you are not strangers, you are more likely going to be able to help each other, rather than… the other thing.

In the meantime, I hope some of you will chime in and let us know how the storm affected you.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Global Killer Asteroid Questions, TEOTWAWKI, The future and our choices | Tagged hurricane, preparation, prepper, Sandy, TEOTWAWKI
21 Comments

My view from the library

Posted on 5 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Just for fun:

Posted in Just Too Cool, On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged library, St. Peter's Basilica
12 Comments

Are you gaining indulgences? If not, why not? So easy… such a work of charity!

Posted on 5 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Lest we forget, in this brief period after All Saint’s and All Souls Holy Church has designated various ways to obtain plenary indulgences under the usual conditions. The Enchiridion Indulgentiarum 29 says

§ 1. A plenary indulgence, applicable only to souls detained in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful who

1° each day, from the first of November to the octave, will have devoutly visited a cemetery and, even only in the mind, will have prayed for the dead;

….

§ 2. A partial indulgence, applicable only to souls detained in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful who,

1° will have devoutly visited a cemetery and, even only in the mind, will have prayed for the dead;

2° will have devoutly recited Laudes or Vespers of the Office of the Dead, or (will have devoutly recited) the invocation “Requiem aeternam”.

Here is the aforementioned prayer that gains the indulgence:

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Year of Faith | Tagged indulgence, plenary, prayers for the dead, Spiritual Works of Mercy
13 Comments

Selective readings, ruptures in ritual, artificial impositions, reclaiming continuity

Posted on 5 November 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

CNA/EWTN had a piece about the pilgrimage to Rome in thanksgiving for Summorum Pontificum. The undersigned was happy to be quoted.

Pilgrims arrive in Rome to celebrate Latin Mass permission
By Matthew A. Rarey

Vatican City, Nov 2, 2012 / 12:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In honor of the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement that any priest can celebrate the Mass according to the pre-Vatican II rite in Latin, a number of pilgrims have come to Rome to offer thanks and celebrate.

“I gladly accepted to celebrate (tomorrow’s) Mass for pilgrims who came to thank the Pope for the gift of the motu proprio ‘Summorum Pontificum’ because it is a way to make others understand that it is normal to use the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite,” said Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

He will say Mass in the extraordinary form on Nov. 3 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

This is significant because liturgical reforms do not do away with traditional forms of the liturgy.

American priest Father John Zuhlsdorf came to Rome to participate in the pilgrimage, which includes liturgical rites as well as talks about the importance of the Mass which was universally used before the Second Vatican Council.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf, better known as “Fr. Z,” engages in the New Evangelization via his award-winning blog, which reaches Catholics around the world.

Speaking of the Pope’s 2007 document on the extraordinary form of the Mass, he told CNA on Nov. 2 that it aids the Church in embracing a form of liturgical worship wrongly neglected after the Second Vatican Council.

“The Holy Father … is bringing us back into continuity with the way that Catholics have worshiped for centuries,” Fr. Zuhlsdorf said.

“After the Second Vatican Council there was a rupture in ritual, of our worship of Almighty God. There was an artificial imposition of the liturgy after the mandates of the Second Vatican Council. We didn’t actually get what the Second Vatican Council mandated. And it caused a rupture in how we worship as Catholics.”

Fr. Zuhlsdorf noted that liturgical innovations applied by “selective readings of the council documents” led to certain aspects of them being “de-emphasized while very important aspects were entirely ignored.”

The way liturgical rites, particularly the Mass, were re-interpreted following the council did not take into account the natural life of the faithful’s worship.

Before he was elected Pope, said Fr. Zuhlsdorf, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger described certain liturgical reforms after the council “as an artificial thing” in that they didn’t “grow organically out of previous forms. Instead, they were artificial developments that grew more out of scholars at their desktop rather than something that grew out of the praying Church.”

This, in turn, caused a rupture in the Church’s worship that jarred many Catholics.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf noted that in contrast, Pope Benedict’s mandate allowing worldwide use of the extraordinary form encourages the faithful to embrace the faith of their forefathers, lending a “continuity of tradition.”