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{]:¬)

Ad multos annos Pope Benedict

Posted on 16 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Say a prayer for Pope Benedict today on his 85th birthday.

He is now one of the oldest of Popes in history.

Here is a shot of my Vatican Curia wall calendar.

Close up of the birthday item.

UPDATE:

I read in the UK’s best Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald, some remarks by His Holiness on the occasion of his birthday:

“I find myself on the last stretch of my journey in life, and I don’t know what is awaiting me.”

“I know, however, that the light of God exists, that he is risen, that his light is stronger than any darkness and that God’s goodness is stronger than any evil in this world, and this helps me go forward with certainty,” he said.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
5 Comments

Any good news?

Posted on 16 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

What is your good news today?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
43 Comments

UK: British atheists try to block new Catholic schools

Posted on 16 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the UK’s best Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald comes this dreadful tale:

Humanists to mount legal challenge against new schools
By MADELEINE TEAHAN on Thursday, 12 April 2012

A legal challenge will be launched against the building of two new Catholic schools in southwest London.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) and the Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign (RISC) are planning to mount a legal challenge against Richmond Council, following an application by the Diocese of Westminster to build a Catholic primary and secondary school.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Westminster defended the application stating: “The Diocese of Westminster believe that Richmond Council have acted entirely properly in respect of proposals for the establishment of new Voluntary Aided Catholic primary and secondary schools in the borough.

“The proposed court case being brought by RISC and the British Humanist Association, a national organisation that campaigns against the existence of all schools with a religious character, seeks to use procedural arguments to prevent an entirely legitimate proposal to increase the educational choices available for parents and children in Richmond.”

[…]

It is useful for people in the USA to keep track of what is going on in the UK. Their Kulturkampf is farther along than ours.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged anti-catholicism, atheists, BHA, bigotry, bigots, kulturkampf
21 Comments

Your Sunday Mass and sermon notes

Posted on 16 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point in the Sunday sermon you heard? Some point of Mass apart from the norm that earned special attention? Share it here.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
21 Comments

A Titanic Fata Morgana

Posted on 15 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

By now most of you know that today was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic.

Astronomy Pic of the Day, which isn’t limited to covering things celestial, has a photo of a very curious natural phenomenon which is proposed as, perhaps, having something to do with Titanic’s collision with the iceberg and subsequent foundering.

Behold… Fata Morgana.

Did this mirage help sink the Titanic? The optical phenomenon called Fata Morgana can make strange shapes or a false wall of water appear above a watery horizon. When conditions are right, light reflecting off of cold water will be bent by an unusual layer of warm air above to arrive at the observer from several different angles. A conceptually comparable mirage can make a setting Sun appear strangely distorted or a distant pavement appear wet. One hundred years ago today, such a Fata Morgana mirage might have obscured real icebergs from the clear view of crew onboard the Titanic. Additional evidence for this distortion hypothesis arises from the nearby vessel SS Californian which reported sightings consistent with Fata Morgana mirages. The above Fata Morgana mirage was taken off the US Pacific coast in 2008.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged 15 April, APOD, Astronomy Pic of the Day, Fata Morgana, iceberg, RMS Titanic
14 Comments

“Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them…”

Posted on 15 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

From today’s Gospel reading (John 20:20-23).

Our Lord gave His own power to the Apostles to forgive or to retain sins. Validly ordained bishops and priests have Christ’s own power to forgive sins and they do so validly with the Church’s permission, indicated by a “faculty”.

There is no sin so great that any of us can commit that a confessor cannot absolve, for it is Christ absolving as the confessor absolves.

The penitential season of preparation for Easter may be behind us, but we must still examine our consciences and go to confession when our examen has brought mortal sin into focus. There are sins of commission and sins of omission, which as sometimes harder to discern.

Commenting on these verses of John 20, St. Jerome (+420) wrote:

You say that the Church was founded on Peter (Matthew 16:18), although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the strength of the Church depends on them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism. (Adversus Iovinianum 1.26).

Our Lord gives us what we need so that we know we belong to Him in His Body the Church and so that we know that our sins have been forgiven.

Say a prayer of thanks to the Most Holy Trinity for the gift of certainty about both membership in the Church Christ founded and also confidence in forgiveness for our sins through the Sacrament of Penance. And while you are at it, ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen the unity of the Church by bringing the SSPX into clearer unity with Peter and also to inspire a revitalization of the Sacrament of Penance.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, GO TO CONFESSION, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, Patristiblogging | Tagged confession, reconciliation, sacrament of penance, SSPX, St. Jerome, unity
7 Comments

Spitfires! Very cool story.

Posted on 15 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw this at Sancte Pater from the Daily Mail.

One of the coolest airplanes evvvver.

The new Battle of Burma: Find 20 buried Spitfires and make them fly

By Kirsty Walker

(Mail Online) Twenty brand-new RAF Spitfires could soon reach for the sky following a deal reached with Burma yesterday.

Experts believe they have discovered the locations of around 20 of the Second World War fighters buried at airfields around the country.

David Cameron has secured an agreement that they will be returned to Britain

Historians say the Spitfires were shipped out to Burma in the summer of 1945, two weeks before atomic bombs were dropped on Japan which brought the war to a sudden end.

The British campaign to push the Japanese out of Burma was the longest and bloodiest of the war, beginning after the Japanese invaded in late 1941.

Spitfires helped to support the Chindit special forces on the ground – and proved a huge boost to morale. They played a crucial role in defeating the enemy and covering the subsequent Allied advance through Burma, protecting the ground troops and providing vital supplies.

But the Mark II Spitfires in the secret haul never saw action. Earl Mountbatten issued an order for them to be hidden in 1945 to prevent foreign forces from getting their hands on them as the British army demobilised. The aircraft, straight from the production line, were buried in crates at a depth of 4ft to 6ft to preserve them.

Their whereabouts became lost after the RAF struck off their locations from their records.

But aviation enthusiasts, aided by experts from the University of Leeds and a Second World War veteran who witnessed their burial, believe they have now discovered their locations using ground penetrating radar technology.

Downing Street said the Government wants to unearth the aircraft and restore them to their former glory.

The condition of the cargo boxes and aircraft, whose wings and body are buried separately, is unknown. But experts are hopeful that they are well preserved.

A Downing Street source said that Mr Cameron had secured an agreement from the Burmese president to help Britain excavate the aircraft in a joint heritage project.

‘The Spitfire is arguably the most important plane in the history of aviation, playing a crucial role in the Second World War.

‘It is hoped this will be an opportunity to work with the reforming Burmese government to uncover, restore and display these fighter planes and get them gracing the skies of Britain once again,’ they said.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged Burma, Chindit, Mark II Spitfire, Spitfire, WWII
18 Comments

The Mercy of God: A truth for some uncomfortable, even offensive.

Posted on 15 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is no sin so horrible that we little mortals can commit which our infinite and willing God will not forgive, provided we truly repent and seek forgiveness.

The ordinary means of God definitively extending His mercy to us in a way which we can depend on is the Sacrament of Penance.

I picked this up from the blog Good Jesuit Bad Jesuit:

Soon after his appointment, Archbishop Wojtyla approached Jesuit theologian Ignatius Rozycki and asked him to review Sister Faustina’s writings. Initially skeptical, Fr. Rozycki spent ten years in an exhaustive study of the Sister and her notebooks, which the Vatican had condemned in 1958. Father Rozycki’s findings were published and the prohibition lifted in 1978. Beatified in 1992, St. Faustina was canonized in the year 2000; on the latter occasion Pope John Paul II declared the first Sunday after Easter “Divine Mercy Sunday.”

A few weeks ago I came upon a thought-provoking homily by Father Matthew Kelty, O.C.S.O., which was given on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2006. It seems that during the former Commandant’s solitary confinement in Krakow, where he awaited execution for his war crimes, Rudolph Hoess heard the bells of the local Carmel and was reminded of the Faith he had observed as a child but had long since rejected. He called for a German-speaking priest.

The local Jesuit provincial, Fr. Ladislav Lohn, S.J., went to the convent of Sister Faustina and asked the Sisters to pray earnestly while he went to hear the prisoner’s confession. In the end Hoess was reconciled with the Church and received Holy Communion. Later Hoess wrote his wife and five children, expressed sorrow for his crimes, and begged forgiveness of the people of Poland. Hoess was executed April 16, 1947.

In his homily, Father Kelty contends that, though he may rightly spend an eternity in Purgatory, by the mercy of God even a man like Rudolph Hoess could be saved. This is an uncomfortable truth for some, even offensive to those whose sense of justice could be satisfied with nothing less than eternal damnation for such a “monster.”

Link (here)

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, GO TO CONFESSION, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Non Nobis and Te Deum, Our Catholic Identity, Pray For A Miracle | Tagged Auschwitz, Carmel, confession, Jesuit, Nazi, Purgatory, reversion, Rudolph Hoess, sacrament of penance
44 Comments

Operation HOT MIC!

Posted on 14 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Perhaps this could be run as an ad from now until the election in November?

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Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty | Tagged 1st Amendment, abortion, contraception, HHS, HHS mandate, Pres. Obama, religious liberty
23 Comments

US Bishops: Bloggers play ‘critical role’ in defending Church. Fr. Z makes a proposal.

Posted on 14 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When the Obama Administration began to attack the 1st Amendment, Catholic bloggers rose up.

When the U.S. Bishops called for rallies for religious freedom, Catholic bloggers posted links and dates and places.

When the USCCB and Card. Dolan and Bp. Lori made statements or gave interviews, Catholic bloggers spread the word.

Catholic bloggers are to the establishment and the dissident Catholic media what talk radio and cable are to the old time news and entertainment establishment.

The great majority of Catholic bloggers would (and perhaps might have to) go to the wall for the Catholic bishops in a good cause and with good leadership.

From Life News:

US Bishops: Bloggers play ‘critical role’ in defending the Church
BY PATRICK B. CRAINE

Relations between Catholic bloggers and Church officials have at times been quite strained as the new media has developed in the last couple years. Some prelates, clergy, and chancery officials have expressed strong reservations about the Catholic blogosphere, with some even speaking quite derogatorily. [Is that a fact? I am willing to let bygones be bygones.]

Church leaders have been angered by the penchant of many bloggers to call them out on their failures to expound and defend controversial Catholic teachings on moral issues like contraception, homosexuality, and abortion.

The difficulties got to the point that last year the Vatican convened a special conference for bloggersto try to build bridges and learn more about this new method for advancing the Gospel.

But now even the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is saying Catholic bloggers have a “critical role” in defending the Church.

In a new statement on religious freedom released today they write:

The Catholic Church in America is blessed with an immense number of writers, producers, artists, publishers, filmmakers, and bloggers employing all the means of communications—both old and new media—to expound and teach the faith. They too have a critical role in this great struggle for religious liberty. [NB:]We call upon them to use their skills and talents in defense of our first freedom.

For a PDF of the bishops’ statement click HERE.

Okay, let’s double-down.

I, in turn, call upon the U.S. Bishops to do what the Holy See did: host a conference… call a meeting with bloggers.

I ask fellow Catholic bloggers to pick up and renew this proposal on their own blogs. Propose that the bishops organize a blogger summit, a blogger confab, a blogger powwow, a blognic on steroids.

Do they mean it, or not? Are Catholic bloggers valued, or not? Are these just words? Vapor?

Your Excellencies…