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{]:¬)

12 July: Blessed Louis and Marie-Azélie Martin and Breast Cancer

Posted on 12 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Our frequent interlocutrix and commentatrix here, “Supertradmum”, has a nice reminder on her own blog, Etheldredasplace, about two of our family of Blesseds whom you may not be aware of or know to acknowledge today, their feast.

Sometimes those blesseds and saints who have been beatified or canonized more recently evade our attention because they are not in all our books and calendars yet.

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin

Today in the Novus Order is the feast day of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, St. Therese’s great and humble parents. They are among the patrons of this blog. [Her blog, of course.] July 13th was the day of their marriage. So, this would have been a preparation day. They were married at midnight in the local church without hardly anyone there, just the witnesses and a few. How wonderful! How private and how sacred! Brides and grooms could take a lesson from this humble couple.

May God raise up other men and women who are married to create saints among us. May the intercession of Louis and Zelie lead us into our vocations and help us to trust in God at all times.

May Zelie comfort those women who have had or have breast cancer, and may she allow those who do not to refrain from judging those who do.

I like the fact that our friend Supertradmum pointed out the connection with breast cancer, which is what carried off Marie-Azélie.

One of the more interesting choices John Paul II made during his long pontificate was the Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi. Pope Benedict continued with Marie-Azélie Guérin and Louis Martin. These beatifications underscore the vocation of married couples and the fact that spouses can and must seek holiness together.

Marriage is a vocation that aims at bringing children into the world and helping each other to love God and seek heaven.

UPDATE:

My friend Fr. Stephen Reynolds at St. Theresa’s in Sugar Land, TX had a beautiful bronze made of the couple for a shrine.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged Bl Louis and Zelie Martin, breast cancer, St. Thérèse of Lisieux
11 Comments

Dead Cardinal Meets White Dove

Posted on 11 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I don’t know what this means, but it is interesting.

As you may know, the Archbishop Emeritus of Rio de Janeiro, Eugenio Card. Sales died. His funeral was celebrated in Rio.

During his funeral, a white dove decided to hand around on or near the casket of the late Cardinal.

For an hour.

[wp_youtube]amYFqxnWwdU[/wp_youtube]

Another link HERE with different angles.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged Card. Sales, dove
22 Comments

QUAERITUR: Anglicans using a Catholic church for their services

Posted on 11 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I have been informed by an Anglican group that my Bishop gave the green light to let an Anglican (not an ordinariate group, but a schismatic Anglican group) use one of our school’s sanctuary and altar to celebrate their services. Is this permitted? If not, what should I do?

I get the sense that you, dear reader, want to act on this. Be careful not to read something negative into every ecumenical gesture. Not all of them are illicit.

This situation is addressed in the 25 March 1993 Decree on the Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. This is a dicasterial, not a papal document. It was not signed “in forma specifica“. It nevertheless has binding force as an act of executive power.

The document contains these pertinent paragraphs:

137. Catholic churches are consecrated or blessed buildings which have an important theological and liturgical significance for the Catholic community. They are therefore generally reserved for Catholic worship. However, if priests, ministers or communities not in full communion with the Catholic Church do not have a place or the liturgical objects necessary for celebrating worthily their religious ceremonies, the diocesan Bishop may allow them the use of a church or a Catholic building and also lend them what may be necessary for their services. Under similar circumstances, permission may be given to them for interment or for the celebration of services at Catholic cemeteries.

138. Because of developments in society, the rapid growth of population and urbanization, and for financial motives, where there is a good ecumenical relationship and understanding between the communities, the shared ownership or use of church premises over an extended period of time may become a matter of practical interest.

139. When authorization for such ownership or use is given by the diocesan Bishop, according to any norms which may be established by the Episcopal Conference or the Holy See, judicious consideration should be given to the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, so that this question is resolved on the basis of a sound sacramental theology with the respect that is due, while also taking account of the sensitivities of those who will use the building, e.g., by constructing a separate room or chapel.

140. Before making plans for a shared building, the authorities of the communities concerned should first reach agreement as to how their various disciplines will be observed, particularly in regard to the sacraments. Furthermore, a written agreement should be made which will clearly and adequately take care of all questions which may arise concerning financial matters and the obligations arising from church and civil law.

Therefore, the bishop is within his authority to permit what you described.

Hopefully, the bishop has a well-worded contract laying out the situations and circumstances of the use of the church.

Think of it this way. Since this is a schismatic Anglican group, it may be part of the bishop’s plan gradually to pull them into the Catholic fold!

As for what YOU might do concretely, dear questioner, here are a few suggestions.

Pray for the unity of the Church.
Pray for these Anglicans, that they might respond to the grace that is being given to them to come into full unity with the Church of Rome.
Pray for the bishop, who is obliged by his office to care for souls of the baptized in the diocese.
Write a graciously worded letter to the Catholic bishop in question, thanking him for his zeal and pastoral solicitude not only for the Catholics, but for the souls of all the baptized of his diocese whom in his heavy office he is obliged by God to care for unto their salvation.

BTW… Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, Pope of Christian Unity, The Drill | Tagged Anglicanorum coetibus, Anglicans, care of souls, Christian Unity, cura animarum, Decree on the Principles and Norms on Ecumenism
85 Comments

Young lady on YouTube evangelizing like a champ, explaining the … Traditional Latin Mass!

Posted on 11 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A reader sent the link to this video.

We’ve got to hand it to this young lady. She is on YouTube, explaining, even evangelizing, like a champ.

[wp_youtube]ZDb8LNJ_NB4[/wp_youtube]

WDTPRS kudos!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Fr. Z KUDOS, HONORED GUESTS, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Extraordinary Form, New Media, TLM, youtube
47 Comments

The cases of two Chinese Bishops. Prayers needed.

Posted on 11 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From CNA:

Vatican lauds ordination of China’s missing bishop

Vatican City, Jul 10, 2012 / 04:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has praised the approved ordination of a Chinese bishop, who is now missing after announcing his split from the state-run Catholic Church during his ordination.

“The ordination of the Reverend Thaddeus Ma Daqin as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Shanghai on Saturday 7 July 2012 is encouraging and is to be welcomed,” said a July 10 Vatican communique.

During the ordination ceremony, Bishop Ma revealed that he was quitting his posts within the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association which refuses to acknowledge the authority of the Pope. [This will be a real blow to Doctrix of the Church Nancy Pelosi and the First Gay President in their attempt to set up the American Patriot Catholic Association.]

[…]

Bishop Ma, however, has not been seen in public since. Various media outlets suggest he was whisked away by state-officials following the ceremony.

UCANews reports that priests and nuns in Shanghai have since received a text message from Bishop Ma’s cellphone claiming to be sent by him.

[…]

The mystery surrounding Bishop Ma comes on the day the Vatican formally announced the excommunication of 48-year-old Fr. Joseph Yue Fusheng following his illicit ordination as bishop of Harbin in north-east China on July 6.

[…]

Posted in Modern Martyrs, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged China, Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association
14 Comments

Congratulations to the Diocese of Portsmouth in England

Posted on 11 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I read with interest about the appointment of the new Bishop of Portsmouth, His Excellency Most Rev. Bp.-Elect Philip Egan, vicar general of the Diocese of Shrewsbury, Vicar General of the Diocese of Shrewsbury.

I noted with additional interest that my friend the great P.P. of Blackfen, His Hermeneuticalness Fr. Tim Fingan liked the appointment, which says a great deal. Fr. Finigan wrote, inter alia,

“Mgr Egan and I were in the same year at the English College back in the day. He is a thoroughly sound chap and I am delighted that he has been given this responsibility by the Holy Father.”

I noted with even more interest that The Bitter Pill (aka The Tablet) that they seem nervous about this new bishop:

Mgr Egan has written a book “Philosophy and Catholic Theology: A Primer” and has publicly defended Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, the document that banned artificial contraception, describing it as infallible teaching.

Ooooo! Imagine such a thing as upholding the Church’s teaching! A bishop! Perhaps we should go back to calling that weekly RU-486?

By contrast, the best Catholic weekly in the UK, The Catholic Herald, had this from the pen of William Oddie:

The choice of Mgr Philip Egan to succeed Bishop Crispian Hollis at Portsmouth is [The Nuncio] Archbishop Mennini’s first real appointment (it is generally thought that the appointment of Mgr Peter Brignall as the new Bishop of Wrexham was probably already in the pipeline), and it is a cracker. If you want an idea of Mgr Egan’s theology, you might like to look HERE at a talk he gave in 2009, on the authority of Humanae Vitae (in which he argued that its teaching was proclaimed infallibly from the ordinary Magisterium).

From his appointment, we can deduce a number of things. First, that Archbishop Mennini has considerable respect for Bishop Davies, who he clearly sees as the kind of bishop we need more of in this country: he almost certainly found out about Mgr Egan, who has so far maintained a fairly low profile, from Bishop Davies: the fact that he has followed his advice shows what kind of bishop he is now looking to appoint.

He goes on to say:

The Congregation for Bishops (which in Cardinal Marc Ouellet now has a firmly Ratzingerian prefect, who may well with this appointment be confirming that England’s problems have at last been noticed in Rome) will soon be making a good number of other episcopal appointments in England, and they will be relying on Archbishop Mennini’s advice. East Anglia is vacant; Plymouth, Brentwood and quite a few other dioceses will soon likewise be sede vacante; a good third of the dioceses of England will over the next year or so have new bishops.

And it looks as if Bp. Davies in Shrewsbury has played a role. Also, since the Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, is still pretty young he is not likely to “go native”. He surely doesn’t want this to be his last job. Moreover, Card. Ouellet is still the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and men such as Card. Burke. Card. Murphy-O’Connor, however, turns 80 on 24 August and will no longer have a voice in the Congregation as a member.

What this appointment suggests to me is that the tide has shifted over there. A the pieces are in place for a revolution of the English Church along the lines Pope Benedict invoked when he made his state visit and beatified John Henry Newman.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Fr. Z KUDOS | Tagged Bp. Egan, D. Portsmouth, D. Shrewsbury
12 Comments

Obama Defends HHS Mandate: It’s “Not Fair” That Catholics Won’t Fund Birth Control

Posted on 11 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A biretta tip to CMR I saw this on Weasel Zippers.

Pres. Obama simply lies to a reporter about the HHS mandate. He uses the dodge that “insurance companies”, not the Catholic institutions, will have to pay for the objectionable things. He lies in this because he leaves out a significant point: many religious institutions, and businesses owned by people of faith, self-insure.

If you leave out essential information in an attempt to lead someone to a false conclusion, you lie.

Go HERE. At about 2:00 minutes the relevant part comes up.

So, the First Gay President, the most aggressively pro-abortion President we have ever seen, the one who actually supported infanticide, says that it isn’t “fair” that Catholics stick to their guns.

But, Pres. Obama thinks it’s fair to force Catholics to violate their religious beliefs.

Kudos to the reporter for asking the awkward question.

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Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged 1st Amendment, freedom, HHS mandate, Obamacare, Obamatax, Pres. Obama, religious liberty, The First Gay President
31 Comments

QUAERITUR: Must priests always use an amice?

Posted on 11 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

Quaeritur: If a priest approaches the sanctuary in the nude in preparation for Holy Mass, need he put on an amice? Since there would be no “ordinary clothing” to be covered, it would seem that he need not do so. Am I wrong? Inquiring minds want to know.

Hmmm… this is a serious question!

Let’s get some bare facts.

An amice, from Latin amictus, “a garment put on over other clothing”, in turn from the verb amicio “to throw round, to wrap about, to cloth”, is a rectangular linen cloth which has strings at two corners on one long side. It is placed, first on the head, and then over the shoulders and around the neck. The strings are then crossed over the chest, passed around the back and around to the front where they are tied, so as to keep the amice in place.

The naked truth is that an amice, by etymological definition, is something you put on over other clothing. If the priest has no other clothing, you don’t put it on, right? C’mon! Think it through!

If that weren’t enough in itself, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal says, in part,

336. “… Before the alb is put on, should this not completely cover the ordinary clothing at the neck, an amice should be used.”

If I am reading this correctly, Father is not be obliged to put on the amice before putting on any alb… in this scenario.

By the way, GIRM 336 goes on to say “…the alb may not be exchanged for a surplice…”, which is a very good thing … in this scenario.

On a related issue, however, when you see a priest’s “Roman” collar sticking up out of his vestments, that is a liturgical abuse. His collar must be covered because his collar is “street clothes” as opposed to sacred vestments.

It can happen that the alb or amice will slip away to reveal his street clothes. That is not an abuse. That is an accident. What is an abuse is purposely vesting in such a way that the collar is revealed.

I wonder… when priests do this are they trying to distinguish themselves from all the laypeople in the sanctuary to whom they have abdicated their own priestly role? Hmmm… But I digress.

In the older, venerable, traditional form of Holy Mass, in the Extraordinary Form, the amice is always used, regardless of the shape of the alb. The priest first washes his hands, saying a particular prayer, and when the priest puts on the amice, he lets it rest on the top of his head briefly and he says the prayer:

Impóne, Dómine, cápiti meo gáleam salútis, ad expugnándos diabólicos incúrsus … Upon my head, O Lord, place the helmet of salvation, so that I may defeat the assaults of the devil. (cf Isaiah 59:17; Ephesians 6:17, 6:11)

I think seminarians and priests should memorize and use the vesting prayers, as of old, even before Mass in the Ordinary Form.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged amice, amicio, amictus, GIRM 336, vesting prayers
15 Comments

An exhortation about marriage and its meaning, its sacrifices, graces and joys

Posted on 10 July 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Because of the entry I wrote about Extraordinary Form Nuptial Masses for mixed-faith couples, I was prompted to re-read an exhortation which was often used (and still can be) at the time of the sermon by priests in the USA to exhort and instruct the couple during the marriage rite.

Exhortation Before Marriage

Beloved of Christ. You are about to enter upon a union which is most sacred and most serious. It is most sacred, because established by God Himself. By it, He gave to man a share in the greatest work of creation, the work of the continuation of the human race. And in this way He sanctified human love and enabled man and woman to help each other live as children of God, by sharing a common life under His fatherly care.

Because God Himself is thus its author, marriage is of its very nature a holy institution, requiring of those who enter into it a complete and unreserved giving of self. But Christ our Lord added to the holiness of marriage an even deeper meaning and a higher beauty. He referred to the love of marriage to describe His own love for His Church, that is, for the people of God whom He redeemed by His own blood. And so He gave to Christians a new vision of what married life ought to be, a life of self-sacrificing love like His own. It is for this reason that His apostle, St. Paul, clearly states that marriage is now and for all time to be considered a great mystery, intimately bound up with the supernatural union of Christ and the Church, which union is also to be its pattern. This union, then, is most serious, because it will bind you together for life in a relationship so close and so intimate, that it will profoundly influence your whole future. That future, with its hopes and disappointments, its successes and its failures, its pleasures and its pains, its joys and its sorrows, is hidden from your eyes. You know that these elements are mingled in every life, and are to be expected in your own. And so not knowing what is before you, you take each other for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death.

Truly, then, these words are most serious. It is a beautiful tribute to your undoubted faith in each other, that recognizing their full import, you are, nevertheless, so willing and ready to pronounce them. And because these words involve such solemn obligations, it is most fitting that you rest the security of your wedded life upon the great principle of self-sacrifice. And so you begin your married life by the voluntary and complete surrender of your individual lives in the interest of that deeper and wider life which you are to have in common. Henceforth you will belong entirely to each other; you will be one in mind, one in heart, and one in affections. And whatever sacrifices you may hereafter be required to make to preserve this mutual life, always make them generously. Sacrifice is usually difficult and irksome. Only love can make it easy, and perfect love can make it a joy. We are willing to give in proportion as we love. And when love is perfect, the sacrifice is complete. God so loved the world that he gave His only-begotten Son, and the Son so loved us that He gave Himself for our salvation. “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

No greater blessing can come to your married life than pure conjugal love, loyal and true to the end. May, then, this love with which you join your hands and hearts today never fail, but grow deeper and stronger as the years go on. And if true love and the unselfish spirit of perfect sacrifice guide your every action, you can expect the greatest measure of earthly happiness that may be allotted to man in this vale of tears. The rest is in the hands of God. Nor will God be wanting to your needs; He will pledge you the life-long support of His graces in the holy sacrament which you are now going to receive.

Beautiful.

Let us not forget that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Uphold and defend the holiness, dignity and meaning of marriage.