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

Surprise! New Archbishop for Indianapolis

Posted on 16 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In other news, the hitherto Secretary of the Congregation for Religious in Rome, Most Reverend Joseph William Tobin, after only about 2 years, has been promoted to be Archbishop of Indianapolis. More HERE.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Archbp. Tobin, Archd. Indianapolis
39 Comments

What they are NOT saying in the Synod about REAL New Evangelization: start having babies!

Posted on 16 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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Changing demographics.

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Sts. Nunilo and Alodia pray for us.

In other news, the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch in Tblisi is being credited with boosting the birth-rate in Georgia. On LifeSite I read that the Patriarch Ilia II offered to be the godfather of children born into families that already had two or more children. The birth rate has soared. The Patriarch personally performed 400 baptisms in the cathedral on 6 May alone.

Doesn’t this sound like something Card. Dolan would do?

And why wasn’t Patriarch Ilia asked to speak to the Synod instead of Archbp. Rowan Williams, whose organization is bleeding members?

UPDATE:

Card. Turkson showed the filmette to the participants of the Synod. Some of them got a little nervous. It seems they wrenched an apology from the Cardinal.

From CWN:

Cardinal Peter Turkson has apologized for screening a video about the growth of Islam in Europe for participants at the Synod of Bishops.

The YouTube video, “Muslim Demographics,” which called attention to the rise in Europe’s Muslim population, was criticized by some Synod fathers as an attack on Islam. A Vatican Radio report described the film in unsparing words, as a “fear-mongering presentation of statistics attempting to show how Islam is conquering Europe and the rest of the world.” [“fear-mongering”? Really?]

Cardinal Turkson, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, insisted that his intention was not to denigrate Islam. “The point was to highlight the demographic situation as a result of the anti-life tendency and culture in the Western world,” he said. [As in tell the flock to START HAVING BABIES. The shift in demographics is serious.]

“For me to attack Islam would be to attack my own family,” said that cardinal, a native of Ghana. “My paternal uncle was a Muslim and he took care of me when I was a boy, and when he grew old I took care of him until he died.”

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged babies, demographics, godfather, Islam, New Evangelization, Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, The Religion of Peace
30 Comments

Liberals only invoke their Catholicism when it agrees with their Leftism

Posted on 16 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Radio talk-show great Dennis Prager analyzes pro-abortion catholic VP Joe Biden’s abortion response during the debate. HERE.

A taste….

Joe Biden’s Religion: Catholicism or Leftism?

In the vice presidential debate, the two candidates, both Roman Catholics, were asked about their religious beliefs, how they impact the candidates’ political positions and specifically about abortion. This was the response of Vice President Joe Biden:
“My religion defines who I am. And I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.
“With regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a — what we call de fide doctrine. Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.
“But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.
“I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women, they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor, in my view. And the Supreme Court — I’m not going to interfere with that.”
Let’s analyze this response.
1. “My religion defines who I am.”
If a conservative, evangelical Christian candidate for national office said that he defined himself by his religious beliefs, liberals would be screaming that the wall between church and state was in danger of being taken down.
Here is the rule in American politics: When the left uses religion to promote liberal policies, it is a beautiful thing. When the right uses religion to promote conservative policies, it threatens the separation of church and state and may lead to the creation of a theocracy.

[…]

2. “It has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.”

[…]

3. “I accept my church’s position on abortion … I just refuse to impose that on others.”
This sounds beautiful to liberals. But it is as un-thought-through as it is un-Catholic.

[…]

These statements by the vice-president of the United States provide one more example of the fact that leftism — not Christianity, not Catholicism, and not Islam — has been the most influential religion in the world for the last century.
Only when Catholicism agrees with leftism is Joe Biden prepared to impose it. When his Catholicism does not agree with leftism, it is reduced to being a matter of personal matter of faith, no more binding on non-Catholics than receiving the Eucharist.

[…]

Read the whole thing there.

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Liberals, Our Catholic Identity, Puir Slow-Witted Gowk, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged abortion, Dennis Prager, liberals, November 2012, VP Biden
12 Comments

American Woman(priest)

Posted on 16 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For your consideration:

This was sent to me with reference to an oldie tune:

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Posted in Liberals, Lighter fare, Magisterium of Nuns, Women Religious | Tagged women's ordination, wymyn
84 Comments

Shroud lore

Posted on 16 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Once upon a time I was in Chicago to address a Legatus chapter and I met a fine from from Skokie (I really enjoy writing Skokie!). As I was saying, he is from Skokie. You may I heard of this priest, or even heard this priest: Fr. Richard Simon, Pastor of St. Lambert Parish… in Skokie … and a host of Relevant Radio’s “Go ask your Father”. He has a blog called Reverend Know-It-All inspired by the alter ego of Bullwinkle J. Moose. An inspiration for us all.

Fr. Simon has a post on his blog in which he engages a rabbi. In this post he mentions the Shroud of Turin and includes this tidbit which I did not know.

To me the most telling point about the Shroud is that it is covered by a certain kind of limestone dust. Richard Levi-Setti of the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago and Joseph Kohlbeck, Resident Scientist at the Hercules Aerospace Center in Utah, identified the dust as travertine aragonite limestone, having the exact same chemical signature as the limestone of the empty tomb of Christ in Jerusalem. That type of stone is unique in all the world. Anyone who has been to Jerusalem and seen that lovely pink-golden limestone glowing in the sunset knows it is unique. “Jerushalayim shel zahav… Jerusalem is golden….”

Some time ago, I posted a POLL about the Shroud. The overwhelming number of votes were in favor of authenticity.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Mail from priests | Tagged Fr. Richard Simon, Shroud of Turin
28 Comments

Brick by Brick and Biretta by Biretta

Posted on 15 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I just received a phone call yesterday asking my husband and I if we would be willing to pay for a biretta for our parish priest so he could go for training in the Extraordinary Form. We said absolutely (and offered towards an altar rail!). Even here in a diocese that has been forsaken for so long, we are building! Now we pray that the new bishop chosen for us is an orthodox one.

That, folks, is how it is done.

Posted in Brick by Brick, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Priests and Priesthood, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged biretta
11 Comments

The Doctor and the Great Time Warp

Posted on 15 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila.

There is an interesting story about the Teresa and our present, modern Julio-Gregorian calendar.

In 1582, the ancient Julian calendar (organized by, yes, Julius Caesar and still observed by many Orthodox Christians) officially was terminated on Thursday 4 October by the command of Gregory XIII (1572–1585, Ugo Boncompagni) via the papal bull Inter gravissimas.

At midnight of 3-4 October the calendar skipped automatically to a day named Friday 15 October.

The famed Jesuit mathematician Christopher Clavius (+1612) worked out the calculations for this change. He chose October for the moment of the jump because it had the fewest feast days. He also did his calculations without the use of the decimal point!

St. Teresa of Avila died on the very night on which His Holiness had commanded that the calendar shift from 4 October to 15 October, which is why her feast is celebrated on the 15th rather than the 3rd or 4th.

If you are in Rome sometimes, stop my San Salvatore in Lauro and look at the chewed up little fountain to the left of the main doors of the church. It will probably be obscured by parked cars. On this llittle fountain is what’s left of a lamb. Over the fountain there is an inscription which inter alia speaks of a draco or “dragon” who, dutiful (pius), masters the whole globe or the world (draco qui toti pius imperat orbi). This is reference to Pope Gregory XIII whose coat of arms bore a dragon with wings outstretched. this is the Pope who ordered the change in the calendar and after whom we call our modern calendar Julio-Gregorian.

Here is the inscription on the fountain, for those of you who want to take a crack at it. You will need to know that virginea here refers to a famous Roman water source, called Acqua Vergine (which flows over the coins in the Fontana Trevi) and the lupus (“wolf”) and leo (“lion”) refer to other fountains, now lost, which were part of a set, this fountain being the “lamb”.

VT LVPVS IN MARTIS CAMPO MANSVETIOR AGNO
VIRGINEAS POPVLO FAVCE MINISTRAT AQVAS
SIC QVOQVE PERSPICVAM CVI VIRGO PRAESIDET VNDAM
MITIOR HIC HOEDO FVNDIT AB ORE LEO
NEC MIRVM DRACO QVI TOTI PIVS IMPERAT ORBI
EXEMPLO PLACIDOS REDDIT VTROQVE SVO
MDLXXVIIII

Going across the river to San Pietro in Vaticano, we search in the right side aisle for the tomb of Pope Gregory XIII and the interesting relief on his tomb.

It portrays the moment he was so proud of in his pontificate: when Clavius gave him the plans for the new calendar.

One of the things you must learn to do in Rome is pay attention to details, which are really rather funny at times. These people had a wonderful sense of humor.

What is interesting is the style of spectacles from that time, and that the sculptor included it. I haven’t gotten to the bottom of who this fellow might have been. The sculptor himself? The biographer of Gregory? Who knows?

By the way, one of my favorites Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590, Felice Peretti) said:

“Had the Jesuit order produced nothing more than this Clavius, on this account alone the order should be praised”. Clavius was an incredible mathematician who solved some of the most difficult problems of his day and who produced the essential textbooks of the era. Even the way we all learned Euclidian geometry when we were children is due mostly to the presentations of Clavius. His works were translated into Chinese by Matteo Ricci and others so that missionaries could connect with scholars in that far away land and thus bring them to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

PS: Since it is also the Ides of October, today in ancient Rome would have been the day of the October Horse.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged Christopher Clavius, Pope Sixtus V, St. Teresa of Avila
16 Comments

Do you have some good news?

Posted on 15 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Let us know about some good news you can pass along to the readers. Give people a boost!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
38 Comments

STrib whines about Knights of Columbus help for the MN Marriage Amendment

Posted on 15 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the ultra-liberal newspaper of my native place, the Star-Tribune, there is a wacky article trying to turn Catholics against the Knights of Columbus, because the KCs are donating to help the Marriage Amendment to the Minnesota constitution. Here is an interesting paragraph:

In the last four years, the group has given at least $3.6 million to groups leading marriage fights across the country. Now the group is trying to make its mark in Minnesota, and has directly given more than $130,000 to the fight.

$130K! THAT MUCH! WOWWWWWWWIE!

Think of the tens of millions that liberals and homosexual activists pour into the advancement of contrary-to-nature immorality.

But the KCs! Well! The Catholic Knights of Columbus gave $130,000 dollars to something for which the Catholic Bishops of Minnesota have asked for help.

Who do they think they are?

It seems to me that the whole STrib article is thinly-veiled anti-Catholicism.