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{]:¬)

Your Sunday Sermon Notes & POLL: Which feast/day?

Posted on 20 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Is there some good point from the Sunday sermon which you heard? Share it.

Also, a quick WDTPRS POLL.

Author of “The Exorcist” building suit against Georgetown U for not living up to Catholic identity

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is an interesting development. From CNA:

‘Exorcist’ author prepares canon lawsuit against Georgetown
By Michelle Bauman

Washington D.C., May 19, 2012 / 05:03 pm (CNA).- The author of the best-selling book and award-winning screenplay “The Exorcist” has announced that he is leading an effort to file a canon lawsuit against Georgetown University for failures to live up to the demands of the school’s Catholic identity.

William P. Blatty, who graduated from Georgetown in 1950, told CNA on May 18 that he believes there is a need for disciplinary action against the university.

“As I recall it, the Lord knocked over a few tables,” he said.

Blatty, who has been honored by Georgetown with the John Carroll Medal for alumni achievement, will lead other alumni, students and members of the university community in the newly-formed Father King Society to Make Georgetown Honest, Catholic, and Better.

The society is named for the late Jesuit Fr. Thomas M. King, a former theology professor at Georgetown who was rumored to be the inspiration for the priestly character in “The Exorcist.”

Its website encourages members of the Georgetown community to join the canon lawsuit and share their grievances against the university with Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Pope Benedict XVI.

It also asks them to withhold their donations from the school for one year.

Blatty believes that Georgetown has given scandal to the faithful on numerous occasions and has refused to comply with “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” the document issued by Pope John Paul II in 1990 to outline the functions of Catholic universities.

[…]

Take a look at the rest of the story as you have time.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Catholic identity, Ex corde Ecclesiae, Georgetown University, HHS mandate, Jesuits, Kathleen Sebelius, Pres. Obama, The Exorcist, William P. Blatty
22 Comments

To speak or not to speak: that is the question! Active Participation and the Extraordinary Form

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

At Crisis I found an interesting piece about the older, traditional form of Holy Mass in the Roman Rite and “active participation”.

In the article “The Traditional Mass is Not a Spectator Sport by Steve Skojec focuses on the liturgical participation of the congregation urged by members of The Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, “Don [Daniel] Oppenheimer’s fledgling clerical institute of consecrated life – were established in 2002 by then-Bishop Raymond Burke in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. What ensued was a nine year search by the Canons for a permanent home. When I discovered them, the CRNJs had recently been received by Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, WV. They began offering the sacred liturgy at the former St. James’ parish in Charles Town, WV.”

At their parish the whole congregation is encouraged to make the responses and sing those parts of the Mass – Extraordinary Form, mind you – that pertain to them.

Here is the meat of the article, though you should read the whole thing there.

[…]

Dom Daniel likes to remind visitors to the Priory that they do things “by the book.” They are rubrically scrupulous to the 1962 Missal, even if that might cause shudders to anyone who carries around a tattered copy of Pope St. Pius V’s Quo Primum in their back pocket. Among devotees of the Gregorian Rite, there’s some controversy in the notion that the faithful should ever open their mouths, whether in prayer or in song, within the context of a Sunday liturgy. [I’ll say!]

Theologically, historically, you can brawl this one out to your heart’s content. I’ve seen evidence for both arguments. But common sense tells me that the “be seen and not heard” approach to liturgical participation is madness, invented by people who want Catholics to fall in line, not ask questions, and wear their complete docility on their sleeves. This is the kind of Catholicism that caused many of the faithful to abandon the Church in the mid-twentieth-century. Those fabled ruler-wielding nuns cracking the knuckles of anyone who dared think for themselves or struggled with a doctrine drove Catholics away from the Faith and into the arms of secular rationalism. I should know. My father was one of them. Luckily, he came back. Many didn’t. [Haven’t.]

People are people, and by their very nature they need to be a part of something to care about it. They need to find themselves invested. We worship God in community because no man in the Christian life is an island. We pray together because none of us were meant to go it alone. Finding a liturgy that is reverent is hard enough. Finding a liturgy that is reverent but also inclusive in a healthy, orthodox way is even more difficult. The Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem model this as part of a comprehensive approach to traditional Catholic spirituality. If the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments are to not only be sustainable, but continue to grow, it’s the kind of model that more will have to follow.

I am sure that no one will have any opinion about this!

GD&R!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill | Tagged 1962 Missal Romanum, 1962MR, active participation, Bp. Bransfield, Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, congregational singing, D. Wheeling-Charleston, liturgical responses, liturgy, worship
146 Comments

ABC NEWS: Lesbian Couple Charged With Staging Hate Crime

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From ABCNEWS:

Lesbian Couple Charged With Staging Hate Crime

A lesbian couple who claimed they were victims of a hate crime have been arrested after police determined they staged the incidents.

On Oct. 28, Aimee Whitchurch, 37, and Christel Conklin, 29, called police and reported the words “Kill the Gay” were scrawled in red spray paint on the garage door of their Parker, Colo., home.

The next day, the couple told deputies they found a noose hanging on the handle of their front door.

The women told officers they believed the incidents were retaliation from their neighbors and homeowner’s association, who had complained the couple did not pick up after their dogs. [What a classy couple!]

Due to the nature of the crimes, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office worked in tandem with the FBI to investigate. After reviewing witness statements, authorities determined Whitchurch and Conklin had staged the incidents.

Both women are charged with criminal mischief and false reporting. Whitchurch faces an additional charge of forgery.

She told ABC’s Denver affiliate KMGH-TV police were mistaken and vowed to fight the charges.

“This is a fight I started. This is a fight I’m going to finish. This is a fight I’m right on,” she said. “I have every right to live where I want to live.”

Posted in One Man & One Woman |
18 Comments

Nancy Pelosi’s insists that military chaplains be forced to perform homosexual “marriages”. Chaplains protest.

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As a follow up to Nancy Pelosi’s recent stupidity, this is form CNS:

Chaplain’s Group Says Pelosi’s Wrong About Need to Protect Conscience Rights of Chaplains
By Pete Winn

(CNSNews.com) – A group representing more than 2,500 Evangelical Christian military chaplains says House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was wrong on Thursday when she called a provision in the House defense authorization bill designed to protect military chaplains “a fraud.” [Yes indeed! That’s what she said.]

“I think she misses the point entirely,” said Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

“Right now this administration has created an environment in the Department of Defense that if you are in favor of same-sex relationships, you may speak. If you are not in favor, you cannot speak,” Crews said. [You mean, Pelosi and the The First Gay President have created a hostile work environment? Isn’t that usually.. what’s the word… wrong?]

During her weekly press conference with reporters on Thursday, Pelosi told CNSNews.com that she agrees with the Obama administration – and opposes the provision, [Get that? She opposes] Section 536 of the National Defense Authorization Act.

[What does Nancy Pelosi oppose?] Section 536 states that no member of the armed forces may “direct, order, or require a chaplain to perform any duty, rite, ritual, ceremony, service, or function that is contrary to the conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs of the chaplain, or contrary to the moral principles and religious beliefs of the endorsing faith group of the chaplain.”

The Democratic Leader said the idea that military chaplains would be forced to perform same-sex marriages against their will is “a manufactured crisis.”

“Nobody is ordering them to do that,” Pelosi said. “I’ve never seen any suggestion that we’re ordering chaplains to perform same-sex—where is that? I haven’t seen it and I’ve been around this issue for a long time.” [The all-knowing Nancy!]

Crews, whose group represents over half of all chaplains serving on active duty, agreed that no chaplains have yet been ordered to perform same-sex ceremonies.

But the retired military chaplain told CNSNews.com that military chaplains have increasingly been facing negative repercussions since the military policy on homosexuality (“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”) was lifted.

“We already have some examples of a chaplain being pulled from an assignment simply because he forwarded an e-mail that was critical of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. He was told that ‘You need to be closely supervised.’ He was threatened that he would have to retire early,” Crews said.

“We have another chaplain who asked, “Can I speak about this issue? And the commander told him, ‘If you can’t get in line (with the military policy in support of homosexuality), resign your commission.’ So we have those kind of real life cases that the American public doesn’t realize is going on.” [I am convinced that the Obama Administration is trying to drive good chaplains out of the military.]

[…]

There is quite a bit more and it is interesting.

Far and wide we should transition back to “ad orientem” worship

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A reader sent two photos and a note. First, the note:

This morning EWTN televised Mass celebrated by the ordinary, Bishop Robert Baker, at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. The occasion was the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the community of Poor Clares (Mother Angelica’s order) in Birmingham. Of particular note is that Bishop Baker celebrated the Novus Ordo Mass ad orientem. This is standard practice at the Shrine, but the fact that it was televised globally makes it newsworthy, especially given the whole EWTN ad orientem debacle some ten years ago. The Mass re-airs on EWTN at noon and midnight ET, if you’re curious to see.

The photos:

And…

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged ad orientem, Bp. Baker, EWTN, Hanceville
37 Comments

QUAERITUR: Requiem on Memorial Day which is during the Octave of Pentecost

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

At a local parish here in my Archdiocese, there is going to be a High Requiem Mass on Memorial Day, which this year takes place on one of the Octave Days of Pentecost. A priest at another parish says this is illicit, and he therefore is not scheduling a Requiem Mass for that day. Do you Father believe and/ or know if it is licit to have a Requiem Mass on Memorial Day, when it lands during the Octave of Pentecost?

First, let’s get one thing straight. In one of the worst, nay rather, the very worst, in fact, close to the top of the heap of the worst things done to us in the Latin Church in the name of the Second Vatican Council’s mandate for a reform on the liturgy, was the abolition of the Octave of Pentecost. There is no Octave of Pentecost in the Ordinary Form calendar.

And, yes, I know the story about Paul VI that is out and around on the internet. I know the story because I am the source of the story, which was told to me years ago by one of the papal Masters of Ceremony from the time of Paul VI. I put it in one of my columns in The Wanderer and one the Catholic Online Forum and the rest is history. I am also amused when people tell me about a certain prayer before using the Internet. But I digress.

BTW… I once made a series of PODCAzTs about the Octave.

Yes, even in the Ordinary Form calendar there is an optional nod in the direction of Pentecost in the days following that great and solemn feast, which should be given its proper dignity. But an optional nod doth not an Octave make.

If you are using the Extraordinary Form, there is an Octave. Reason #93664 to thank Pope Benedict for the provisions of Summorum Pontificum. In that case, each day during the Octave is a 1st class feast, which don’t provide a lot of room for votive or Requiem Masses for the Poor Souls.

Still, it seems to me a reasonable approach might be to petition your local bishop for permission to have one as an exception to the general rule. The bishops might be surprised by such a question, but I bet he would play ball.

BTW… aren’t the spring Ember Days within the Octave this year?

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged Memorial Day, Octave of Pentecost
8 Comments

CNA: A rabbi sticks up for the SSPX and says to trust Pope Benedict.

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is pretty interesting. From CNA with my emphases:

Trust Pope’s judgment on SSPX deal, senior rabbi says
By David Kerr

Rome, Italy, May 18, 2012 / 06:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A leading American rabbi and Holocaust refugee says people should trust Pope Benedict’s judgment when it comes to the Church possibly readmitting the Society of St. Pius X, which has a bishop who denied the scale of the Holocaust.

“Let me tell you this, I think that Pope Benedict XVI in many ways really understood the Holocaust because he was in the German Army. He deserted (the army), his family was anti-Nazi, I mean he was completely opposed to Hitler,” Rabbi Jack Bemporad told CNA May 16.

“Now, given the fact that he suffered under Hitler and that his family suffered under Hitler, how could he in any way accept or welcome someone who denies that Hitler did anything wrong?” he asked rhetorically.

[…]

Rabbi Bemporad, who currently serves as Professor of Interreligious Studies at the Pontifical Angelicum University, dismissed Bishop Williamson as “one person who is really crazy” and “knows nothing.”

He also believes that Williamson does not speak for the vast majority of Society members.

“The mistake is to take a few people and make them somehow representative of everyone without realizing that that just isn’t true,” he said. “I think it is only a small part of this group that is that radical. I think the vast majority are very happy and would love to be part of the Church.”

Earlier this week the Vatican announced that negotiations with the Society about reconciling the 1988 breach will now happen “separately and singularly” with three of the Society’s four bishops, including Williamson.

For his part, Williamson has made it increasingly clear that he is opposed to reconciliation with Rome. In a letter written earlier this month to his superior, Bishop Williamson suggested that reunion would cause the Society to cease opposing “the universal apostasy of our time.” He also accused Pope Benedict of being “a subjectivist.”

“Now I don’t think that in trying to find a way of incorporating this group that they are going to accept in any way any of the extreme positions that Williamson stands for,” predicted Rabbi Bemporad.

[…]

Posted in Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, Our Catholic Identity, Pope of Christian Unity | Tagged Pope Benedict XVI, Pope of Christian Unity, Rabbi, Rabbi Jack Bemporad, SSPX
19 Comments

WDTPRS 7th Sunday of Easter: the consummation of the world

Posted on 19 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

According to the calendar for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, in some places on Sunday people will celebrated Ascension Thursday. In other places people will celebrate the 7th Sunday of Easter.

Let’s look at the Collect for the 7th Sunday of Easter.

Supplicationibus nostris, Domine, adesto propitius,
ut, sicut humani generis Salvatorem
tecum in tua credimus maiestate,
ita eum usque ad consummationem saeculi manere nobiscum,
sicut ipse promisit, sentiamus.

There is a nice parallelism here in sicut… tecum and ita… nobiscum.

There seems to be a reference to Matthew 28:20:

“Et ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem saeculi”

RSV: “I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
DR: “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”

Adsum is the verb that gives us adesto, which is the “future” imperative (because imperative has to be future). Adsum means to “be present” in both the physical and the moral sense. Thus, it means also “to be present with one’s aid or support; to stand by, to assist, aid, help, protect, defend, sustain.” And also, “to be present in mind, with attention, interest, sympathy; also, with courage; to give attention to something, to give heed, observe, attend to; also, to be fearless, be of good courage.” In the Rite of Ordination, when men are called to receive Holy Orders, their names are pronounced (which is the formal moment of a “calling” – vocatio) and they respond, Adsum! Believe me when I say that that “Adsum!” which candidates for Orders proclaim means all of the above!

Maiestas has an interesting entry in the Lewis & Short Dictionary. This word fundamentally means, “greatness, grandeur, dignity, majesty.” In conjunction with other words it reveals something more. For example, maiestas means the “sovereignty of the Roman people” in classical Latin. Thus, we have the term for high treason: laedere maiestatem. In English we use the same phrase: “lese majesty” also in the French form “lèse majesté”.

Consummatio is technically “a casting up or reckoning together, a summing up, a summary view” as well as a “finishing, completing, accomplishing.” Think of doing a “summation” or doing your “sums”. Or being a “consummate pianist” to indicate a pianist who in his skills and artistry is “complete.”

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Graciously give attention to our supplications, O Lord,
so that, just as we believe the Savior of human kind
is, in your majesty, with you,
we thus may sense him, just as he promised, to be remaining with us
all the way unto the consummation of the world.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):
Father,
help us keep in mind that Christ our Savior
lives with you in glory
and promised to remain with us until the end of time.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):
Graciously hear our supplications, O Lord,
so that we, who believe that the Saviour of the human race
is with you in your glory,
may experience, as he promised,
until the end of the world,
his abiding presence among us.

In the Person of the Risen Lord, the God/man, our humanity is at this very moment present at the right hand of God the Father.

When Christ ascended to the Father, our humanity ascended with Him. We are already there, but still not yet there. We must wait for the world’s consummation and final reckoning to join Them in our final state of endless contemplation of the Triune God.

Christ is still present to us. He is with us in the Holy Eucharist, in the Words of Scripture, in the person of the priest, in the gathering of the baptized.

Christ is with us, still teaching and governing and sanctifying us in Holy Church of which He is the Head. Through and in Him we are the Body, the members, the Church.

In that time after the world and everything and everyone has been put in the balance, and everything has been submitted by Christ to the Father so that God may be all in all, Christ the Head and Christ the Body will be, as St. Augustine might put it, Christus Totus: Christ Whole and Entire.

Posted in WDTPRS |
2 Comments

Hans Küng won’t celebrate 50th of Vatican II, prefers “funeral service”

Posted on 18 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From The Bitter Pill:

Küng misses Vatican II celebration

17 May 2012

Theologian Hans Küng [but not a Catholic theologian… heh…] has turned down an invitation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council at the German Katholikentag at Mannheim, held from tomorrow until Sunday. [While the Jesuit Karl Rahner said that Vatican II was an event tantamount to that first council of the apostles in Jerusalem, Hans Küng said Vatican II didn’t go nearly far enough.]

The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Germany’s largest Catholic lay organisation which is organising the Congress and has more than 12 million members, invited Fr Küng and the former President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, to participate in their “Council Gala”. But four days before the congress was due to begin, Fr Küng declined.

“I was honoured to receive the invitation [Get this!] but is one really in the mood to celebrate at a time when the Church is in such sore distress?” Fr Küng asked in his four-page reply. [4 pages?] “In my opinion there is no reason for a festive Council Gala but rather for an honest service of penance or a funeral service,” he said.