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{]:¬)

I did a very cool thing! And a cameo appearance.

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I did a very cool thing. The International Space Station was to pass reasonably close to my position, though it would be pretty low on the horizon. I hooked up my handheld radio to an external antenna (a Buddistick) tuned to the 20m band and was able to hear a faint conversation for a few seconds! This was the first time I tried! I look forward to a closer pass so I will have more time and a stronger signal. I didn’t try to transmit to the ISS, of course.

PENJING REPORT

Penjing nearly miraculously survived the winter and beginning to get back some leaves. I thought it was a goner a couple times, having lost all its leaves and then again and again losing the little that sprouted out. The other Fukien Tea indeed did die. Penzai the Chinese Elm did just fine as did Irohamomiji, the Japanese Maple. Penjing took ill during one of my trips, when the person who was to water… didn’t. Enough of that. I expect it is past the crisis.

Here is Penjing listening to the ISS, on 144.800 MHz.

“But Father! But Father!” some of you are probably grumbling, “Isn’t that radio overkill for the sake of listening to Bill Bennett, Rush and Hugh Hewitt?”

It would indeed be over kill for mere commercial AM and FM broadcasts, but I am also studying for my Technician (entry) level amateur license.

One of you kind readers sent me the radio (thanks MZ!) and, as I started to dig into it, my interest in radio revived from its many decades long slumber. I think I could walk in and pass the test handily right now, but I would like to get my Morse Code certificate as well so I could do some low power, CW. As part of my study and as time allows I have been watching each evening an episode of Inspector Morse, which seems appropriate. I would eventually like to take some paramedic courses against the day when I might also be of help as part of a volunteer network. It would be good to have a priest involved.

And we all know, don’t we, that Ham Radio will be useful at TEOTWAWKI.

I would like eventually to find Catholic Hams and, especially, clerical Hams! It could be fund to start a group of priests. I know one priest Ham whom I will dub my honorary “Elmer”, though he hasn’t been on air for a long time.

Posted in Ham Radio, Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky!, TEOTWAWKI | Tagged Ham radio, International Space Station, ISS, Morse Code, PENJING REPORT, TEOTWAWKI
79 Comments

SSPX USA District Superior: “double your efforts in the Rosary Crusade”

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The District Superiors of the SSPX are one by one having their say about the present situation of the SSPX in light of the Holy See’s (the Holy Father’s) outreach.

The German Superior HERE and the BeNeLux HERE.

The US District pipes up:

[…]

The matter is in the hands of the Holy Father and we are waiting for His decision.

Let us remember that it is to our Superior General, and only to him, that has been entrusted by the law of the Church [hmmm… I think they are rather outside the law at the moment, and that is what everyone wants to resolve…] and the will of Archbishop Lefebvre the delicate task of our relations with Rome. As such, he is the only competent authority to take prudent decisions for our Society. Because of his function and his 18 years of leadership in keeping the Faith and seeking the common good of the Church, we renew to him all our confidence, trust and respectful obedience in this difficult time. Our filial piety to him, as to the Sovereign Pontiff, [And if they speak about obedience to Bp. Fellay as the Superior, could they not use obedience also in respect to the Holy Father?] pushes us to do more than usual in these unusual circumstances: we desire to bring to them the support of all your prayers. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

To pray is indeed the most important, and as a matter of fact, the only thing we can do now. [Another “Amen!”?] I would like to ask you to double your efforts in the Rosary Crusade, which will end on Pentecost Sunday (May 27, 2012), keeping in mind the striking results of the previous ones. I wish also to solicit your generosity in offering a novena to the Holy Ghost.

The intention of this novena will be that the Holy Ghost may give the graces of light and strength to the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, and to the SuperiorGeneral of the Society, Bishop Fellay.

The novena consists of praying the Veni Creator Spiritus and adding theMemorare (Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary) starting on May 8 and ending on May 16, the vigil of the feast of the Ascension of Our Lord.

I authorize the priests to add these prayers just before or after their daily Mass.

Let us pray that the Good Lord may keep us all united in the Faith and in a corps spirit around our Superior, working for the Restoration of all things in Christ as ever.

In the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Fr. Arnaud Rostand

Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.

Brick by brick.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Pope of Christian Unity | Tagged Benedict XVI, Pope of Christian Unity, SSPX
16 Comments

SSPX BeNeLux District Superior: Archbp. Lefebvre “would have accepted a canonical recognition”

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As usual our friends at Rorate are on top of all things SSPX. I read on their site:

SSPX Benelux District Superior: Abp. Lefebvre “would have accepted a canonical recognition”

[…]

As a good “soldier of Christ”, who knew that he would have to one day render account to God of his episcopate, Abp. Lefebvre kept on in “the good fight” of Christ. Was he chased like a bandit? He nonetheless “followed his course”, perfectly aware that he was in the Church. He expected that one day Rome would grant him that canonical stature of which he had been unjustly deprived, but not to the detriment of the faith, or of its full and free proclamation.

He who, amidst the complete conciliar debacle, had enjoyed for a decade the official blessing of the Church would have accepted, “without any bitterness”, and without any compromise, a canonical recognition, even coming from an authority still strongly tainted by modern errors, but willing to correct the course of the great boat of the Church, “taking in water on every side”.

Yesterday I posted that the SSPX German District Superior said that Benedict was showing pastoral care and they were grateful.

Brick by brick, friends.

District Superior by District Superior.

Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Linking Back, Our Catholic Identity, Pope of Christian Unity, The future and our choices |
14 Comments

Priest, predictably, criticized for telling people not to receive Communion if they are not in the state of grace. Fishwrap exalts.

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that a priest in loony Austria told a parish congregation that if they were not in the state of grace, they should not receive Communion… and they didn’t!

The bad news is that… they didn’t!

At least that is what the National catholic Fishwrap thinks. I am pretty sure that the folks at NcR think that anyone for any reason at any time can and should receive, since sin and the Four Last Things were done away with by the spirit of Vatican II.

They have a story on this:

Austrian parish listens to priest, none receive the host
May. 03, 2012
By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt [Who also writes for The Bitter Pill.]

VIENNA, Austria — The parish church of Amras, Austria, near Innsbruck in Tyrol, was chock-a-block full for the first-Communion Mass on April 22. Shortly before Communion, the parish priest, Norbertine Fr. Patrick Busskamp, announced that only Catholics who were in a state of grace should come forward to Communion. Catholics who are divorced and remarried and Catholics who do not attend Mass every week were not worthy to receive the Eucharist, he said. [I wonder if he used the word “worthy”. That could be the writer’s own interpolation.]

When Communion time came, not a single adult came forward. The entire congregation demonstratively remained seated. [Suggesting that they were, what, organized? NcR would approve of that, since it meant getting a priest in trouble for teaching the truth.] Only the children received Communion.
In an interview with Austrian state radio in Tyrol, Busskamp confirmed that his words to the congregation had been accurately reported, but added, “I wouldn’t have refused anyone Communion had they come forward.”

Abbot Raimund Schreier of the Premonstratensian Monastery of Wilten, to which the parish belongs, said he regretted what had happened.

“It was most unwise of him to act like this at such a ceremony. [?] I have told him that. Behaving like a policeman shows a lack of pastoral sensitivity,” [So does not telling people what a serious sin it is to receive Communion when you know you are not in the state of grace. What is truly un-pastoral not to instruct people about what is sinful and what isn’t.] Schreier told the press.

The church had to accept reality, he said. It is necessary to keep reminding people of the rules, but that does not mean handling a situation as insensitively as Busskamp had done, he said.

[…]

Read the rest there, if you care to.

It is good that we are having these fights. In the process of duking it out about Communion and divorce and remarriage or the Eucharistic fast, or moral sin, or formal membership in the Church, etc., we are regaining something of the clarity we have lost during the last few decades of catechetical and liturgical devastation.

Look. We don’t know all the circumstances of the Austrian parish and the priest.

That said, priests are obliged to teach their parishioners. It a priest’s job to try to keep as many people out of hell as possible. If we don’t do our part, we ourselves will wind up in hell.

Hell is the consequence for priests and bishops who don’t work to keep others out of hell.

Because priests are, by the sacrament of Holy Orders, priests forever, they remain priests in hell, thus increasing their eternal agony of separation from God.

St. Augustine, in one of his tough sermons to his flock, spoke about the heavy responsibility of teaching a message that was hard for people to hear and accept. First, he invoked the stern warning in Ezekiel 3 about negligent pastors. Then, Augustine began to explain himself, tell his people why he was teaching and why he being so tough.
Here is some of s. 17.2.

I am saying this to you and I am saving my soul. If I will have kept silent, I won’t be in great danger, I’ll be in utter ruin. But when I will have spoken, and when I will have fulfilled my duty, pay attention then to your own danger.

What, after all, do I want? What do I desire? What do I long for? Why am I talking? Why am I sitting here? Why am I even alive, except for this intention: in order that we may live together with Christ.

That’s my desire, that’s my honor, that’s my treasured possession, this is my joy, that’s my glory.

But if you will not listen to me and if I haven’t been silent, I will save my soul. But I don’t want to be saved without you (Sed nolo esse salvus sine vobis.)

Priests and especially bishops must stand up in the public square as well as in their pulpits and teach the truth as the Church and nature instruct us. If they don’t, there are eternal consequences for those priests and bishops, because they have endangered their flocks either by lack of instruction or by false instruction. This doesn’t mean that they have to be harsh or aggressive or try to take people from point A to Z without patience. But they do have to do something!

Priests and bishops who don’t teach the truth are in danger of eternal damnation. They have to preach the truth, whether people listen or not, for their own sake if for no other reason. Charity requires finding the best way. The tough part is finding the right ways to preach the truth. But the truth must be preached, nevertheless.

And remember to send a donation to the Diocese of Madison as a sign of support for a bishop and some priests who are being attacked by liberals and the Fishwrap. May I suggest that you all make a donation of, perhaps $1? You can do more, of course. If the bishop were to hear that a large number of folks from all over the place made a little donation, that would be a real shot in the arm.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Brick by Brick, Four Last Things, Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Patristiblogging, The Drill, The future and our choices, Throwing a Nutty |
53 Comments

Super Moon and Aquarid Meteor Shower

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Space Weather:

Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. The shower peaks this weekend on May 5th and 6th. Glare from a perigee full Moon–a “Super Moon”–will interfere with the display. Nevertheless, observers especially in the southern hemisphere could still see dozens of meteors during the hours before local sunrise on May 6th. More information about the shower and live audio from a meteor radar may be found on http://spaceweather.com

Posted in Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged Aquarid, Halley's Comet, meteor shower, Super Moon
2 Comments

Pres. Obama’s problematic proclamation for National Day of Prayer (3 May)

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the wake of Pres. Obama’s direct attacks on the 1st Amendment both in its religious liberty clause and freedom of speech clause, in the wake of the Pres. Obama’s bungling of the Chen Guangcheng Affair, I read this on

CNA:

Religious freedom expert faults Obama’s prayer proclamation
By Michelle Bauman

Washington D.C., May 3, 2012 / 04:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A legal expert in religious freedom believes that President Barack Obama’s recent prayer proclamation reflects a wider problem of viewing constitutional protections for religious liberty as being limited to “mere belief.” [Remember that Pres. Obama, when quoting the Declaration of Independence, has left out the clear reference to our rights coming from God and that his administration has tried to reframe “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship”.]

“I don’t know that the president intentionally wrote it in this fashion,” [uh huh] said Robert Tyler, general counsel for the non-profit legal group Advocates for Faith and Freedom.

However, he explained to CNA on May 2, the wording of the proclamation “reflects a real problem” in the understanding of religious freedom.

On May 1, President Obama issued a proclamation declaring May 3 as a National Day of Prayer in the United States.

Since 1952, every U.S. president has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation calling on Americans to give thanks for their blessings and seek divine guidance for the future.

In his proclamation, Obama offered thanks for a “democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience.”

Religious freedom has become a hotly-debated issue after the Obama administration issued a mandate that will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and drugs that can cause early abortions, even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.

Critics of the mandate argue that the Obama administration is failing to respect the right to religious freedom, treating it as though it is merely a right to worship, but not to live out one’s beliefs. [Freedom of mere worship doesn’t allow for you to act on your religious beliefs in the public square.]

Tyler explained that the American founders “absolutely” intended for the First Amendment’s religion freedom protections to apply to actions as well as beliefs. This view was carried down throughout most of America’s history, he said.

However, in 1990, the Supreme Court held in Employment Division v. Smith that laws which burden religion are acceptable as long as they are “neutral and generally applicable,” he said.

This ruling “has created quite a problem for the free exercise of religion in America today,” explained Tyler, observing that it has led to the idea that religious freedom merely means “believing whatever you want to believe” and does not extend to cover conduct.

As a result, he said, there have been increasing attempts in recent years to burden the free exercise of religion.

But for two centuries before prior to the ruling “basically everybody understood” religious freedom as a broad liberty that extends to actions as well as beliefs.

This view is illustrated in the 1963 Sherbert v. Verner case, in which the Supreme Court held that laws imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion are subject to the highest level of scrutiny, he said.

This previous understanding, which was present throughout the vast majority of American history, is “much more consistent” with what the American founders meant, Tyler explained.

He observed that the First Amendment was written to provide a “really vast” protection for religious freedom.

Tyler also asserted that several members of the Supreme Court – including Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion in Employment Division v. Smith – probably did not intend for the decision to be used in the way it has been.

He believes that if given the chance, the Supreme Court would likely attempt to “curtail the impact” of the 1990 case.

Obama’s National Day of Prayer proclamation, he said, reflects the “errant decision” of the Supreme Court in 1990, which should be abandoned in favor of a fuller and more accurate understanding of the First Amendment.

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged 1st Amendment, Employment Division v. Smith, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, HHS, National Day of Prayer, Pres. Obama, SCOTUS, Sherbert v. Verner, Supreme Court
17 Comments

GUEST POST: “si fuerint peccata vestra ut coccinum…”

Posted on 3 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The great Roman Fabrizio sent me a photo of Marines on Iwo Jima’s Mt. Suribachi at Mass, His commentary follows.

It’s so harrrrd to kneel for Holy Communion, especially if the air-conditioning isn’t working at the “Eucharistic gathering” during the diocesan “event”.

My first thought looking at these brave Marines was for the Angels who saw this happening and how they must have celebrated around the Throne. Admittedly we’re just human beings and everything we do for the Lord looks pathetic if compared to His Glory. And yet, I can’t think of many other things that must appeal to the Heart of Jesus as much as a man like that, in the middle of a veritable hell, possibly a few minutes from death, kneeling on the scorched ground of Mount Suribachi because that’s how you receive your Savior! The Holy Angels must have thought “maybe that’s why He loves them so much, why he said to them:

si fuerint peccata vestra ut coccinum...”

I would like all Catholic men to just think of this picture every time they hear arguments against traditional reverence for the Sacred Species, every time when – looking to the presbyterium from the communion line – they notice one of those gorgeous, no longer used altar rails in some of those churches left to us by our forbears, in Rome or New York, Vienna or Montreal. And every time they happen to receive in a Church that has no altar rail at all because it was never there or was irresponsibly, impiously demolished, they should think of that Marine, and how we decided that in our “adult faith”, in our “meaningfulness” we could do without those “ritualistic trappings”. Well those guys couldn’t, in February ’45, atop Mount Suribachi.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, HONORED GUESTS, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged Holy Communion, Iwo Jima, kneeling
20 Comments

SSPX German District Superior: “If Rome now calls us back out of exile…”

Posted on 2 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the April Mitteilungsblatt (newsletter) of the SSPX in Germany, the District Superior (former Superior General) of the SSPX, Fr. Franz Schmidberger, wrote:

[…]

Wenn Rom uns nun aus dem Exil zurückruft, in das wir 1975 mit der Aberkennung der Approbation und noch mehr 1988 mit dem Exkommunikationsdekret verstoßen worden sind, dann ist dies ein Akt der Gerechtigkeit und zweifellos auch ein Akt echter Hirtensorge Papst Benedikts XVI. Und dafür sind wir dankbar.

[…]

If Rome now calls us back out of the exile into which (in 1975 with the withdrawal of approval and even more in 1988 with the decree of excommunication) we were cast, then this is an act of justice and undoubtedly also an act of the real pastoral care of Pope Benedict XVI. And we are grateful for it.

Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Pope of Christian Unity | Tagged exile, Fr. Schmidberger, SSPX
38 Comments

Bp. Sample on Liturgical Reform – audio of interview

Posted on 2 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

His Excellency Most Reverend Alex Sample, Bishop of Marquette, has something to say about liturgical reform. This is an interview from Catholic Answers.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Bp. Sample stresses a “hermeneutic of continuity”.

I am not entirely on board with His Excellency (an old friend of mine) about the idea that what Summorum Pontificum established that the Ordinary and Extraordinary Form are actually the same rite. Summorum Pontificum gave a juridical solution to the matter of priestly faculties for the use of both forms. However, Summorum Pontificum did not close off discussion about whether they older and newer forms are historically, theologically, liturgically the same rite. There is a lot more to say about that.

Bp. Sample speaks about his discovery of and his discoveries through the Extraordinary Form.

He speaks about the benefits of Summorum Pontificum, including what I call the “gravitational pull” that the Extraordinary Form will exert on the newer form of Mass.

He stress that if we do not understand that Holy Mass is a Sacrifice, we do not understand what Mass is.

The question of the calendar comes up. A caller has a question of whether priests can celebrate ad orientem in the Novus Ordo. (The answer is YES! His Excellency hits a triple on this one. It would have been a home run but for one nuance.) He gets a question about whether the new translation was really necessary. He gets into the confusion caused in some cases (not all) by Communion services on weekdays (Inter alia he says, “It shouldn’t look like a Mass!”). He talks about the Offertory Prayers of the Extraordinary Form. If he hit a triple on ad orientem worship, he hits a three-run homer on kneeling for Holy Communion!

BTW… kudos to the interviewer. He gets it.