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

Catholic Near East Welfare Association and winter aid for Christians in Syria

Posted on 26 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I picked this up from my friend John L. Allen, the nearly ubiquitous and normally fair-minded prolific writer, alas still writing for the über-liberal Fishwrap. My emphases.

The Catholic Near East Welfare Association — among the largest the providers of aid to Christians in Syria, if not the largest — has launched an emergency appeal to help Christian refugees get through the winter. The idea is to deliver “Winter Survival Kits” to 2,000 families at a cost of $210 each.

Issam Bishara, a representative of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association in Lebanon, told me Monday that because Syria’s Christians generally have not headed for massive refugee camps in Turkey or Jordan, they’re not getting help from international relief agencies. Fearing exposure to further hostility, they’ve headed to other parts of Syria and to Lebanon, taking refuge with families and friends, but in many cases, those folks are running out of food, water, heating oil and other supplies.

Bottom line: Without help, it’s likely to be a long, cold and deadly winter.

Readers wishing to support the CNEWA appeal can find information and an online donation form here.

I am not sure about today, but in the past the CNEWA was run competently. It is under the aegis of the Holy See. I am confident that it is also good today.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged Catholic Near East Welfare Association, CNEWA, John L. Allen, Syria
6 Comments

Drama

Posted on 26 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From xkcd:

Did you know that “dray-ma” is a legitimate alternative pronunciation of “drama”?

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged drama
6 Comments

Ante diem vii kalendas novembres

Posted on 26 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From rogueclassicism:

ante diem vii kalendas novembres

ludi Victoriae Sullanae (day 1) — games held in honour of Victoria commemorating Sulla’s defeat of the Samnites in 82 B.C.

1656 B.C. — Noah enters the ark (this must be Bishop Ussher again)

31 A.D. — suicide of Apicata, wife of the disgraced Praetorian Praefect Sejanus

ca 250 A.D. — martyrdom of Lucian and Marcian

1852 — during a “violent storm” at Athens, one of the columns of the “Temple of Jupiter Olympus” was toppled (perhaps portrayed here?)

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Noah
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Unless you recover the words, you can’t recover the concepts.

Posted on 26 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When you change the words, you change the concepts.

The liberal progressivist liturgical terrorist reformers were successful in changing our way of speaking about our sacred liturgical worship.

For example, they made us – and no one asked them to do this, by the way – give up talking about “sacrifice”. And when we lost “sacrifice”, we therefore lost a clear understanding of “priesthood”. No “sacrifice”, no “priest”. Today, “minister” dominates. We are losing or have, in some places, lost the words “worship” and “adoration”. Now we talk about “celebration”. We “gather”. We still “pray”. But do we? Really? To whom or what?

“Sin”? It is to laugh. “Hell”? What’s that?

“Worship” and “adoration” had to go, of course. They smack too much of Tantum ergo, and all that stuff. You can see why the now aging-hippies tried to do away with those words. In seminary, after all, the same generation of Richard McBrien types incessantly crammed down our throats “Jesus said ‘Take and eat’, not ‘sit and look’!”

“Altar” is now associated more with protestant “altar calls”. Catholics, talk about “table”. Altars are connected with “sacrifice”. Thus, the concept of altar had to go. “Tables” are us!

It is not, I think, that they were trying to find new ways to express old and fundamentally Catholic concepts to a new generation in modern terms. They were trying to destroy the old and fundamentally Catholic concepts for a new generation.

We must recover our terms.

Unless you recover the words, you can’t recover the concepts.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices, Vatican II, What are they REALLY saying?, Wherein Fr. Z Rants, Year of Faith | Tagged hermeneutic of continuity, liturgy, sacred, worship
51 Comments

Hypocritical, one-sided, biased, mendacious, “tolerance” is on the horizon

Posted on 26 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Minnesotan readers! Get out the vote! Get your like-thinking to the polls and VOTE!

Otherwise, have a taste of Christmas-Yet-To-Come.

Not only is the Obama Administration actively and doggedly undermining our religious freedom, trying to reduce freedom of religion to freedom of worship only, there is a Marriage Amendment on the ballot in Minnesota. The two issues, religious freedom and defense of marriage come together in the following text.

Over at American Catholic my friend The Motley Monk has this (my emphases and comments):

Intolerant tolerance…
Published Thursday, October 25, 2012 A.D. | By The Motley Monk

While on this side of the pond the nation’s bishops are waging battle against the government’s incursions upon religious freedom, an interesting battle is unfolding on the other side of the pond in Great Britain.

It seems that Susanne and Mike Wilkinson who own Uf Dorf Wilkinson—a Swiss country B&B located in Cookham, Berkshire, which also serves as the couple’s home—believe the precepts of their Christian faith trump the law of the land. [The laws of the land should reflect God’s laws, positive and the natural law as well.] In this instance, that precept concerns the sanctity of marriage and the law is the Britain’s Equality Act Regulations of 2007, which outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation when providing goods, facilities, services, education, and other public functions.

According to the UK Daily Mail, Mrs. Wilkinson told Michael Black and his partner John Morgan in March 2010 that they couldn’t sleep in a double bed at Uf Dorf. That allegedly “discriminatory” judgment led to a lawsuit that Black and Morgan have won, with the judge requiring Mrs. Wilkinson to pay Black and Morgan £3,600 in compensatory damages on the grounds of “hurt feelings.”

Responding to the judgment, Mrs. Wilkinson to the Daily Mail:

Naturally, my husband and I are disappointed to have lost the case and to have been ordered to pay £3,600 in damages for injury to feelings. We have the option to appeal, and we will give that serious consideration.
We believe a person should be free to act upon their sincere beliefs about marriage under their own roof without living in fear of the law. Equality laws have gone too far when they start to intrude into a family home. [Do I hear an “Amen!”? But I am afraid that that is the way we are going. If we don’t stand up, this is what will happen everywhere!]
People’s beliefs about marriage are coming under increasing attack, and I am concerned about people’s freedom to speak and act upon these beliefs. I am a Christian, not just on a Sunday in church, but in every area of my life – as Jesus expects from his followers.
That’s all I was trying to do and I think it’s quite wrong to punish me for that, especially after enduring over two years of vile abuse and threats.

In court, Mrs. Wilkinson explained to the judge that she was serious about her Christian beliefs regarding the sanctity of marriage and wasn’t discriminating because Black and Morgan are homosexual. Mrs. Wilkinson explained that she also doesn’t allow unmarried heterosexual couples to share a double bed at Uf Dorf.

That would make Mrs. Wilkinson consistent in her intolerance or, put in another way, consistent in bringing her faith into her workplace.

Mrs. Wilkinson put her finger squarely on the truth when she observed: “We find this a strange justice in a society that aspires to be increasingly tolerant.”

In the UK, it may very well be the case that the principle of “tolerance” doesn’t extent to being tolerant of traditional Christian teaching about the sanctity of marriage.

Is this a ”coming attraction” of what’s soon to transpire in the United States? [Yes!]

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Liberals, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged Defense, Equality Act Regulations of 2007, homosexuals, intolerance, marriage, Minnesota Marriage Amendment, one man, religious freedom, tolerance
13 Comments

Of processions, flower girls, quzzing altar boys, and the use of the biretta outside

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In some places it is customary to have a procession for the Feast of Christ the King. In the older, traditional, Roman calendar, this Sunday (the last of October) is the Feast of Christ the King.

Our friends at Romanitas Press have an interesting piece about the Christ the King procession.

There is also an article about little girls dropping flower petals in processions. (Hint: NO! Females may not be in liturgical processions. The lovely little creatures with their pretty flower petals can go in front of the procession, of course, but they shouldn’t be in the procession.

There is also a new chapter of Peregrinus Gasolinus available about the all important wearing of the biretta by priests in public outside of church! (HINT: Yes, we can use it as a regular hat, out-of-doors, when going about on our business while dressed in the cassock.)

Also, I note that there is a sheet useful for when you quiz altar boys in preparation for service at the altar! HERE. One of these days I must really get resurrect that site wherein I did the Latin, slowly, in bits and pieces so that it could be more easily memorized. I shall look into that again.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged biretta, Christ the King, flower girls, Mass responses, petals, Romanitas Press
22 Comments

Archbp. Chaput: “We are Catholics before we are Americans”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Card. Burke’s contribution at the Synod of Bishops: “antinomianism …infected post-Council ecclesial life”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

His Eminence Raymond Card. Burke, distinguished canonist and head of the Church’s “Supreme Court” gave his contribution to the Synod of Bishops. The theme he touched on, all too briefly, alas, was topic also examined at a canon law conference I attended a a few years ago, an annual conference now which Card. Burke organizes at the Shrine in LaCrosse, WI.

– H. Em. Rev. Card. Raymond Leo BURKE, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (VATICAN CITY)

The Instrumentum Laboris reminds us that witness to the Christian faith is a valid response to the pressing problems of life in every age and culture, especially because that witness overcomes the false separation existing between the Gospel and life (cf. no. 118). However, so that witness to the faith will have a place, which today’s world urgently needs, cohesion is needed within the Church between life and faith. [We must be coherent. We must live our Catholic identity at all times, not just in private or in worship.]
Among the most serious wounds of society today is the separation of legal culture from its metaphysical objective, which is moral law. [BINGO. Think of this also in terms of the virtue of religion.] In recent times this separation has been much accentuated, manifesting itself as a real antinomianism, which claims [in error] to render actions which are intrinsically evil as legal, for example, abortion on demand, artificial conception of human life with the aim of carrying out experimentation on the life of a human embryo, the so-called euthanasia of those who have the right to our preferential assistance, legal recognition of same-sex unions as marriage, and the negation of the fundamental right to conscience and religious liberty. [Have you ever heard a Catholic politician defend abortion because its “legal”?]
This antinomianism embedded in civil society has unfortunately infected post-Council ecclesial life, [NB: “post-Council”] associating itself, regrettably, with so-called cultural novelties. Excitement following the Council, linked to the establishment of a new Church which teaches freedom and love, has strongly encouraged an attitude of indifference towards Church discipline, if not even hostility. The reforms of ecclesial life which were hoped for by the Council Fathers were therefore, in a certain sense, hindered, if not betrayed.
Devoted to present-day new evangelization, we have the task of laying the foundation for awareness of the disciplinary tradition of the Church and respect of the law in the Church. An interest in [NB] the discipline of the Church is not to be equated with an idea contrary to the mission of the Church in the world, but to a correct attention to cohesively witnessing to faith in the world. This service, certainly humble, of Church Canon Law is also absolutely necessary. How indeed will we be able to witness our faith in the world if we ignore or neglect the demands of justice within the Church? Salvation of the soul, the primary goal of a new evangelization, must also always be in the Church “the supreme law” (can. 1752).

Fr Z kudos to Card. Burke.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Emanations from Penumbras, Fr. Z KUDOS, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices, Vatican II, Year of Faith | Tagged antinomianism, Card. Burke
12 Comments

“years of concerts being interrupted by the Mass”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the fun Eye of the Tiber:

Yonkers, NY––Blake Jennings, lead guitarist at St. Therese Parish in Yonkers, New York is outraged over what he calls “years of concerts being interrupted by the Mass.” The 56-year-old accountant and father of three has played with his band at the 9:30 Folk Mass since 2009. “Our fans love us,” Jennings said, after Sunday Mass. “You can see it in their eyes…the way they droop down, lazily closing as we play…as if their entering into some kind of ecstasy. Or the way some in the parish are so moved they just can’t stand another moment of joy, and simply walk out…presumably to get some air.” But according to Jennings, many in the band have been becoming ever frustrated with the frequent interruptions to their concerts. “Father’s always interrupting…always trying to upstage us. First it’s a gospel, then a homily, eventually the words of consecration…there’s always something with this guy.” Jennings has recently begun a petition, and hopes to get 2,000 signatures to send to the diocese.

An unstable group.

Seriously, who hasn’t experienced this?

Posted in Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged liturgical abuse, liturgical music
46 Comments

Archbp. Chaput: “Catholics cannot have alternate views on abortion”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It seems to me that His Excellency Most Rev. Charles Chaput of Philadelphia is probably the heavy-hitter of the US episcopal conference right now.

CNA has this:

Archbishop Chaput: Be Catholic before you are Democrat or Republican
By Carl Bunderson and Matthew A. Rarey

Rome, Italy, Oct 25, 2012 / 04:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the country approaches election day in two weeks, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia is encouraging Catholic voters to place their faith above their allegiance to political parties.

“I’m always encouraging our people minimally to vote, maximally to run for political office, and make sure that they’re Catholic prior to being Democrat or Republican and that they put that into practice politically,” he told CNA in Rome on Oct. 22.

Archbishop Chaput echoed the calls of other American bishops to have their flocks consider their faith in the voting booth.

“We do believe in the separation of church and state, but we don’t believe in the separation of faith from our political life,” he said.

“It’s very important for Catholics to make distinctions when voting that they never support intrinsic evils like abortion, which is evil in all circumstances. That’s a lot different from different economic policies” that people can reasonably disagree on, the archbishop explained.

His remarks come as an Oct. 22 Gallup poll shows the “economy in general” is the issue rated most important by Americans as the election nears.

“But people who are practicing Catholics cannot have alternate views on abortion,” he stated. “Such foundational issues have a huge impact and it’s important that Catholics make those distinctions.”

“A person (candidate) might be right on a lot of secondary issues but wrong on the foundational issues. And if that’s the case, it would be very difficult for a Catholic to vote for someone who, for example, favors unlimited access to abortion … undermines the meaning of marriage or supports policies that really undermine the foundation of our culture.”

[…]

Read the rest there.

I will remind you also of this post from some time ago. Take time to review it. Archbp. Chaput’s HOMERUN in Houston!

Also, learn from these posts how to talk with your friends and relatives about these burning issues and about voting. I don’t post these things simply so that people who are already convinced can nod and, from a distance, agree. Get out there and change some minds and hearts and also get out the vote.