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

A great coup for the National Shrine of St Paul, in St. Paul, Minnesota! WDTPRS kudos!

Posted on 11 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE: The coup is bigger than I originally thought.

People can now gain the same indulgences by visiting the National Shrine as they can by visiting the Roman Basilica St. Paul’s outside-the-walls.

___

This is truly a “Brick by Brick” story!

I read a story in the newspaper of my native place about a real triumph for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and especially for its Cathedral of St. Paul which is the National Shrine of St. Paul in the United States. Moreover, this a a true feather in the cap, one by now a large bonnet of feathers, gained by its outgoing rector, my friend Fr. Joseph Johnson.

The Cathedral Shrine has scored a stone from the sarcophagus of the Apostle Paul, under the Roman Basilica of St Paul outside-the-walls.

The sarcophagus was in the last few years excavated, studied, authenticated.

From the STrib:

A piece of the Italian sarcophagus of early Christian apostle St. Paul will be displayed May 20 at the Cathedral of St. Paul, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced Thursday.

The relic, brought from Rome in March by cathedral rector the Rev. Joseph Johnson, will serve as an object of veneration for devout Roman Catholics. It consists of a stone removed from the tomb, which lies beneath the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome, Johnson said.

In June 2009, Vatican archaeologists drilled a hole into the sarcophagus and inserted a probe to remove a sample of its contents, Cathedral of St. Paul spokeswoman Carolyn Will said in a news release. The contents included purple fabric, red incense, chalk and protein substances. Bone fragments were sent for carbon-14 testing, which concluded that they came from someone who lived around the first and second centuries A.D.

“This would seem to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition which claims that these are the mortal remains of St. Paul,” Pope Benedict said at the time. “All of this fills our hearts with profound emotion.”

The sarcophagus stone will be on view from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 20, at the cathedral, 729 Selby Av. Ritual veneration will occur outside that day’s mass times at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. Until a more permanent location for the relic is secured, it will be the only public viewing, cathedral officials said.

The cathedral, which in 2009 was designated as the U.S. national shrine of St. Paul, [Another one of the capable Fr. Johnson’s accomplishments.] now becomes an even more significant pilgrimage site, Johnson said.

“Every religious tradition has a notion of pilgrimage, and for Catholics, the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul are major sites,” he said. “Most people never make it to Italy, so this further enhances our designation as a national shrine. … Seeing this gives people a sense of closeness to the apostle Paul, who was the first to spread the Christian message.“

WDTPRS kudos and congratulations to Fr. Johnson!

Posted in Brick by Brick, Fr. Z KUDOS, Just Too Cool, Mail from priests, Priests and Priesthood, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged Cathedral of Saint Paul, sarcophagus, St. Paul
6 Comments

It’s Friday. Start thinking about Saturday and going to confession.

Posted on 11 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Since it is Friday, I suggest that you start thinking about going to confession on Saturday. Make a plan.

Most of you have the motive, means and opportunity to go to confession regularly. Saturday is often your best time to go.

Your Plan To Go To Confession should include an examination of conscience. My good friend Fr. Finigan has a good one you can use. HERE.

Also, scan my Tips For Making a Good Confession. HERE.

Do not be afraid to make a complete confession of your mortal sins.

Confess your sins in kind and number.

There is nothing that any of us little mortals can do that is so bad that our almighty and merciful God will not forgive. His power to forgive is perfect and absolute. His desire to forgive is urgent and ready.

When your sins are forgiven in sacramental confession, the guilt of the sin is gone, cleansed from your soul, even though the memory and the need to do penance remain.

Go to confession.

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION |
11 Comments

Stop the whining LCWR. You aren’t the only group getting an extreme make-over.

Posted on 11 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Long-time lax catholics may not enjoy the resection and sutures the physicians of the CDF and the USCCB are applying to certain groups within Holy Church, but, as St. Augustine once preached, a doctor doesn’t stop cutting just because the patient screams for him to stop (cf. s. 80, 3).

The leadership of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR – a subsidiary of the Magisterium of Nuns), together with their feminist Greek chorus, has been whining about the reform efforts launched by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The LCWR has been caught out, and called to account, and they don’t like it one little bit. Thus, they moan and gripe and play the martyr because they have been “investigated” and tasked to change their ways. Boo hoo.

They are not the only one’s who have been investigated.

We see the same thing going on in Ireland, for example. Take the case of the Irish Redemptorist priest whose odd columns and media commentary earned him correction from the CDF. His defenders are whining … in much the manner as the LCWR, as a matter of fact.

The Church in Ireland needs a pretty severe overhaul, as the recent apostolic visitation has revealed. They aren’t going to like it one little bit. One of the key elements to a renewal of anything Irish is going to be a reformation of the seminaries. To that end….

From CNA:

Irish College in Rome changes staff after apostolic visitation

Rome, Italy, May 10, 2012 / 11:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Three of the four senior staff members at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome are stepping down from their posts after a Vatican investigation concluded Ireland’s seminaries are not doing enough to promote Catholic orthodoxy. [Keep in mind that this was one of the concerns of the CDF in examining the LCWR, which in turn influences the spiritual and intellectual formation of the women religious under its umbrella. The CDF wasn’t concerned only with the errors the LCWR was committing, but also with the good things they were omitting.]

“In colleges there is a constant changeover, maybe after the Apostolic Visitation it is not a bad idea to bring in new people, new ideas and move forward,” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told CNA on May 10 in Rome.

Today’s announcement comes in the wake of the March 2012 publication of a two-year investigation – officially called an apostolic visitation — into the health of the Irish Church. The visitation of Irish seminaries was led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. [There’s that name again. Follow him on Twitter.]

While the report praised Irish seminary staff for being “dedicated formators” who were “committed to the work of priestly training,” [This is Vaticanese. The Holy See’s medicinal letters always start with praising this and that and the other thing, and then – THWACK – just like the ruler of an LCWR nun when she was young and teaching 2nd grade.] it also called for a “greater concern for the intellectual formation of seminarians” to ensure that their education was “in full conformity with the Church’s Magisterium.”

The report also recommended that the pastoral training of seminarians be re-evaluated to ensure “it is sacramental, priestly and apostolic” and concerned with “preparing candidates to celebrate the sacraments and to preach.”

Overall, the visitation found that the renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland was being hampered by “a certain tendency, not dominant but nevertheless fairly widespread among priests, religious and laity, to hold theological opinions at variance with the teachings of the Magisterium.” [I love it” “a certain tendency”… “not widespread”. That means “it’s a real problem and its everywhere”.]

[…]

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Our Catholic Identity, Patristiblogging, Priests and Priesthood, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged formation, Ireland, Irish Church, LCWR, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, magisterium of nuns, priesthood, seminaries, Visitation
21 Comments

VIDEO about November. Fr. Z asks, “What is this? Tolkien?”

Posted on 11 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When I saw this video my first thought was, “What is this? Tolkien?”

Perhaps it is.

The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings present a seemingly hopeless struggle against evil. The protagonists were constantly challenged to overcome their limitations, make sacrificial choices, dig deeper for greater courage, rely not only on themselves but also on others, and then in the blackest of hours face down evil manifested in overwhelming forces.

Yes, maybe this is Tolkien.

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I recommend a daily examination of conscience and regular sacramental confession.

Participate well at Holy Mass and join your concerns and petitions to those of the priest as he prepares the elements for consecration.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Emanations from Penumbras, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Pray For A Miracle, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices | Tagged conscience, election, freedom, life, marriage, November 2012, religious liberty
40 Comments

VIDEO: Georgetown and Kathleen Sebelius

Posted on 10 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Cardinal Newman Society has this about Georgetown University’s invitation of HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius, supporter of Tiller the late-term abortionist, the President’s pointman in the attack on the Church’s and on freedom of religion, the architect of forcing Catholic institutions to pay for abortifacients….

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Posted in Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices | Tagged Cardinal Newman Society, CNS, conscience, Georgetown, HHS, HHS mandate, Pres. Obama, religious liberty
13 Comments

ABNORMAL: the new “normal”

Posted on 10 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the Catholic League:

THE NEW ABNORMAL

May 10, 2012

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

The new normal is yesterday’s abnormal: what was seen as bizarre, if not literally crazy, is now seen as normal. The converse is also true: those who still value the judiciously exercised role of shame, guilt and modesty are now seen as representative of the new abnormal.

The following examples are taken exclusively from news stories of May 9 and May 10:

• The president of the U.S. thinks it’s fine for two men to marry

• Homosexual and transgender characters—all positively portrayed—are proliferating on TV (by contrast, positively portrayed Catholic characters are almost nonexistent)

• There is a bill in California that would make it illegal for a trained psychologist to convert gays and lesbians

• New York’s top court said it is perfectly fine to view unlimited amounts of child pornography online

• The cover of Time magazine shows a young boy standing on a chair sucking his mother’s bare breast

• Tupperware parties run by suburban moms have been replaced by sex-toy parties featuring vibrators and lubricants

• A Nebraska mother has been arrested for charging men to have sex with her daughters, ages 7 and 14

Not all of these incidents are of equal moral weight, but put together they convey a powerful message: cultural ordinates are being obliterated. And when boundary lines disappear, the social fallout can be wicked.

Put differently, if it were our goal to create moral anarchy, we couldn’t have done a better job. There is a risk in pointing this out, but it’s worth being tagged the new abnormal.

Posted in Biased Media Coverage, Emanations from Penumbras, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice, Throwing a Nutty |
40 Comments

Nancy Pelosi, Doctrix of the Church, cites Theologian Obama and calls evil “good”

Posted on 10 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From CNS:

Pelosi: Her Catholic Faith ‘Compels’ Her to Support Same-Sex Marriage

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By Christopher Goins
May 10, 2012
Subscribe to Christopher Goins’s posts

(CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that her Catholic faith “compels” her to “be against discrimination of any kind” and thus for same-sex marriage. [She is, therefore, either deeply ignorant about the Catholic Faith, she is deeply stupid, or she is lying. The Catholic Faith cannot justify condoning a redefinition of marriage to include same-sex unions. The notion is absurd.]

A reporter asked Pelosi: “Many of the people that are opposed to gay marriage cite their religion as the reason why they’re opposed. You’re a Catholic that supports gay marriage. Do you believe that religion and the idea that you can support gay marriage can be separated? And how do you grapple with the idea that you support gay marriage as a Catholic?”

Pelosi responded: “My religion has, compels me–and I love it for it–to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider this a form of discrimination. I think it’s unconstitutional on top of that. ” [While I don’t agree that it is unconstitutional to define marriage as being between one male and one female (of prescribed ages) a justification of the same on the basis of the Church’s teaching, from natural law and revelation, is impossible. She is therefore ignorant, thick, or lying.]

Pelosi spoke glowingly of the comments President Barack Obama made Wednesday when he said he supported same-sex marriage.

“So I think that yesterday was a great day for America because the president in a very personal, as well as presidential way, made history, and hopefully this will bring people together on the issue,” Pelosi said. [Let’s not pretend that anyone thinks the President’s remarks were strictly “personal”. They were a signal, much as his remarks about the sad case of Trayvon Martin in Florida were a “signal”.]

Pelosi also said that the president “went a long way” in shortening the difference between the “inevitable and the inconceivable” of the introduction of same-sex “marriage.”

“It’s a matter of time. It’s all about time. And on these issues, what is inevitable to some of us is inconceivable to others,” she said. “And what we want to do is shorten the difference between the inevitable and the inconceivable,” she continued. “And I think the president went a long way in doing that yesterday.” [Evil.]

[…]

Piling public scandal upon public scandal upon public scandal upon public scandal.

For the love of God and His Holy Church….

Cardinal Wuerl? Archbishop Niederauer?

Where are you?

Posted in 1983 CIC can. 915, One Man & One Woman, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Archbp. Niederauer, can. 915, Card. Wuerl, homosexuals, Nancy, Pres. Obama, same-sex unions, scandal
59 Comments

During their convention Dems will call for same-sex “marriage”

Posted on 10 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On the site of The Hill we read that during the upcoming Democrat convention, in which they will re-nominate the Evolver-in-Chief, the dems will try to insert a plank in the platform, probably the lower part of the platform, calling for the legalization of same-sex “marriage”.

Reid: Democratic platform will include pro-gay marriage plank
By Alexander Bolton – 05/10/12 01:44 PM ET

The Democrats’ top leader in Congress said Thursday that the party’s platform will soon include a plank calling for the legalization of gay marriage.

“The president’s in favor of it — I’m sure it will be [included],” said Reid. [Even though it’s just the President’s personal opinon. Riiiight.]

Delegates to the Democratic National Convention will meet in Charlotte, N.C., to vote on the party’s platform in early September.

[…]

Reid, however, declined to say when or whether he would schedule a vote on legislation approved by the Judiciary Committee to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The law defines marriage as the legal union of a man and a woman and exempts states from having to recognize same-sex marriages certified by other states.

“We’ll be happy to take a look at it — I just don’t know where it is and we have a few other things to do,” Reid said.

He predicted Republicans would block the DOMA repeal.

“We know Republicans won’t let us get on the floor anyway,” he said. “It’s not a Democratic problem, it’s a Republican problem.”

Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to House Republicans last year stating that he and the president had concluded “classifications based on sexual orientation” as applied to same-sex couples under DOMA are unconstitutional.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) [CANON 915! NOW!] has also expressed support for having a plank legalizing gay marriage in the party’s platform.

That said, don’t forget that Pres. Obama is actively undermining the 1st Amendment and attacking the Catholic Church. Don’t forget that even when he tries to misdirect attention.

Posted in 1983 CIC can. 915, Dogs and Fleas, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged can. 915, Democrats, DNC, homosexuality, Nancy Pelosi, Pres. Obama, same-sex unions, Sen. Reid
19 Comments

One of these days… QUAERITUR…

Posted on 10 May 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The 11 year cycle of magnetic forces within the Sun is producing more and larger conditions for solar flares and coronal mass ejections, blasts of charged particles that rocket away from the Sun at millions of miles per hour.

From Spaceweather:

SOLAR ACTIVITY INTENSIFIES: Huge sunspot AR1476 is crackling with M-class solar flares and appears to be on the verge of producing something even stronger. The sunspot’s ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field harbors energy for X-class flares, the most powerful kind. Earth is entering the line of fire as the sunspot rotates across the face of the sun.

This morning, May 10th around 0418 UT, sunspot 1476 unleashed an impulsive M5-class solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:

Apparently, the almost-X class explosion did not hurl a significant CME toward Earth. NOAA forecasters estimate a 65% chance of more M-class flares and a 10% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.

One of these days,…

… a huge solar storm will produce a vast coronal mass ejection directly towards the Earth. It will take a matter of a few hours to reach the Earth.

If the positive and negative fields of the ejected mass line up with the Earth’s magnetic field, millions of tons of charged particles will spill down through the atmosphere creating a surge of power, an electromagnetic pulse, from the poles toward the equator. The atmosphere will light up like a neon sign, in stupendous auroras. The electrical pulse will also surge over and overload and burn out just about every electrically powered gizmo we depend on for our modern lives, including the transformers that supply the power to the grids within which we now live.

It will be TEOTWAWKI and then soon after the SHTF.

QUAERITUR: Reflecting on the trends echoed by and amplified by Pres. Obama’s administration, and given the way our society is spinning down into a moral toilet and intellectual tar pit in its very structures, might it not be preferable for something like the results of a devastating EMP to happen than that we continue to offend God so deeply by the perverse twisting the very structures of our culture and society away from what is good and true and beautiful?

I, for one, am going to refresh my supply of

[CUE MUSIC]

MYSTIC MONK COFFEE!

When vast solar storms are about to fry your stuff and send you back to the stone age, why not make yourself a WDTPRS mug filled with hot, strong and fragrant Mystic Monk Coffee?

That’s right! Mystic Monk Coffee has special anti-solar storm properties which are guaranteed to protect you from EMPs! When the coronal mass ejection arrives, you’ll be fine. It’ll roll off your back, surrounded as you will be with the deeply satisfying aroma of Mystic Monk Coffee. Think of it as anti-solar flare aroma therapy.

Mystic Monk Coffee!

It’s swell!