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

Archd. Detroit, Michael Voris and RealCatholicTV – a development

Posted on 9 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is a development in the case of the Archdiocese of Detroit v the use of “Catholic” by Real Catholic TV and Michael Voris.

You will recall that the Archdiocese has required Mr. Voris and Real Catholic TV not to use the word “Catholic” in the name of their venture. On the other hand, Mr. Voris and Real Catholic TV think the Archdiocese doesn’t have the proper standing to make such a requirement. Real Catholic TV seems to have more to do with the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend than it does with the Archdiocese of Detroit. We have several posts here on this blog, including some commentary by the canonist Prof. Peters.

Today I read at Life Site News this following with my emphases:

Archdiocesan canon lawyers differ on asking RealCatholicTV.com to drop ‘Catholic’ name

by John-Henry Westen

January 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canon lawyers at two American dioceses disagree over the question of jurisdiction in the case of Michael Voris and RealCatholicTV, who were recently asked by the Archdiocese of Detroit to stop using the name “Catholic” in their work.

[…]While the questions asked by most pertain to why the action was taken, the issue being discussed by canon lawyers is where jurisdiction over RealCatholicTV.com lies – with the Archdiocese of Detroit, where Michael Voris, the star of the show, lives and works, or in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, where the owner and financier of RealCatholicTV.com, Marc Brammer, resides.

Fr. Mark Gurtner, Judicial Vicar of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana spoke with LifeSiteNews, acknowledging that the diocese did know of Mr. Brammer’s enterprise of RealCatholicTV.com. When asked if the diocese had any complaints about RealCatholicTV.com, Gurner replied, “No, as far as I know there’s nothing.”

Speaking as a canon lawyer and not an official of the diocese, Gurtner also said he believes the jurisdiction of the case resides with the Indiana diocese. “It certainly seems to me that canonically Michael Voris would not be the one that this would be imposed on,” he said. “Even though he is the one that regularly appears on (the show) he, in a sense, is really just an employee of (RealCatholicTV.com).”

“It seems like if the Archdiocese of Detroit is trying to go after (Voris), that’s the wrong person to address this with, that would have to be with the owner of the website or blog,” he added.

“I suppose if this Marc Brammer is paying for and running, constructing his blog from our diocese in his home I suppose you could make the argument that we have jurisdiction canonically.”

When asked by LifeSiteNews what concerns the Detroit Archdiocese had about Voris and RealCatholicTV.com, Detroit Archdiocesan Director of Communications McGrath would not specify any concern other than the use of the word ‘Catholic’.

Asked if the archdiocese has asked any other group or individual in the archdiocese not to use the name Catholic, McGrath said he couldn’t remember any other cases during his 20 years with the diocese. “I don’t know. I’ve been here 20 years I can’t say that we’ve never done that in the history of the Archdiocese,” he said.

Pressed on the point, he said, “I wouldn’t want to say that definitively. But not any that I can recall recently, no.”

Fans of RealCatholicTV have noted that there are entities in the archdiocese, such as the Jesuit University of Detroit Mercy (UDM), which bills itself as “a Catholic university,” that regularly violate Catholic teaching but have been permitted to retain their “Catholic” designation without interference from the diocese. UDM has proposed abortion agencies as career opportunities for students; had links to pro-abortion groups on its website; retained a renowned pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage” nun on its Board of Trustees; held an annual event called ‘sexapalooza’ with activities such as ‘safe sex games’, sex-tac-toe; and has professors that put stickers on their office doors indicating their support for abortion.

Regarding the question of jurisdiction, McGrath directed LifeSiteNews to a blog post by canon lawyer Ed Peters, an employee of the archdiocese, who has supported the archdiocese’s claims of having jurisdiction in the case.

In an initial blog post Peters, a professor at the archdiocesan seminary, wrote, in his capacity as a canon lawyer and not as a representative of the diocese, about canon law 216, noting that the bishop has authority over the name Catholic. In a subsequent post, Peters took up the matter of jurisdiction, suggesting that Detroit is on “firm ground” in pursuing Voris.

So! The plot thickens.

On the site of RealCatholicTV we find this statement from Mr. Voris:

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Posted in Linking Back, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill | Tagged Archd. Detroit, can. 216, Ed Peters, LifeSiteNews, Michael Voris, RealCatholicTV.com
50 Comments

QUAERITUR: Light One Up – Incense, Thuribles, and You.

Posted on 9 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I am writing to ask you about the proper provision for incense at Holy Mass. Can you or your readers recommend a way to ensure a plentiful supply of incense smoke from a thurible at Mass, and to avoid the “invisible smoke” effect? I am of the belief that one cannot have too much incense! Thank you!

Some of you long-time readers may remember the “Wake Up And Smell The Incense” post from 2007. Click HERE.

Apart from our interest in liturgical decorum, with the cost of incense going up, this is a real concern. We want good smoke and we want to avoid waste.

First, make sure your coals are hot enough. That means starting them ahead so that they have enough time to get nice and hot. If you light those little self-lighting cake thingies just before Mass is about to start, you run the risk of melting the resin of the incense rather than burning it. No smoke and wasteful.

You can speed the process by blowing, of course, or using a hair-drier (which is noisy) or, if the chain is strong and the person mature and competent doing the windmill thing with the thurible. Fun with an element of danger. What could go wrong?

(By the way, thurible, comes from Latin thus, thuris or tus, turis, “incense”.)

Second, coals need oxygen. When the thurible is not in use, keep the cover open, up. Let the coals get air. That also keeps the cover cool so Father doesn’t fry his hand. When a thurifer is standing, holding the censer suspended, he should swing is gently, like a pendulum to keep air moving on the coals.

Third, before putting incense on the coals in the thurible, use the spoon to tap off some of the ash built up around the hot core of the coal. Then put in your incense.

Fourth, when using the censer, move it adequately with broad enough gestures that you move the smoke from out the cover.

Fifth, whoever is in charge of the sacristy and the thurifer himself has to keep an eye on the coals. If they are exhausted, or will be soon, do something! Add more or change it out in adequate time so that they will be hot enough when needed. Think ahead! The MC or sacristan may need to remind a thurifer in the case of special occasions, as when there is a procession at the end of Mass or if there is a funeral, etc.

Sixth: Depending on the composition of the incense, it could be a good idea to have a mortal and pestle or a small electric coffee grinder in the sacristy to bust up the big chunks that won’t easily burn.

I am sure some experienced priests and servers will have other smokey tips.

Anecdote: At my church in Italy where I was rector, I occasionally got coals from a bakery with a wood oven on the edge of the piazza. Real wood coals, charcoal! When I put the incense on those… PHOPF!… it went up immediately. There was no waste and they stayed hot and useful.

And then there’s this:

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Okay, just one more.

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Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests | Tagged censers, incense, liturgy, thurible, thurifer, tips, worship
71 Comments

Liturgical road-kill! (WARNING! Not for the timid.) Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 9 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Have you ever had the experience of driving down the interstate and spying from afar some dark lump alongside the road?

You know that it is some unfortunate critter who met its high speed end at the hands of the Michelin Man. You know it is going to be ugly. You don’t want to have to see it. You tell yourself you are just going to pass by without taking notice. You look anyway.

Someone sent me a link to a site that has archived of – I am not making this up – Folk Mass Music Original Recordings.

That’s right! You older folks can now re-live the days of the first “Folk Masses”, the so-called “Hootenanny Masses” referred to in liturgical writings of the day.

You younger folks can learn what all the fuss was about.

It’s like having a peep at road-kill. Fascinating and dreadful, and not in a good way.

Here is a sample from 1966, the ineffable Ray Repp’s “To Be Alive”.

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Reason #35 for Summorum Pontificum.

To those of you who are too young to have known those halcyon days after the Council, when our liturgical worship was being destroyed by liturgist hacks and dimwit prelates, absorb some of this stuff and try to understand how our liturgical worship got to the state it is in today.

With the help of Pope Benedict’s vision, his “Marshall Plan” for our Catholic identity, and with the slow, inexorable influence of the biological solution being applied to older priests, bishops and others in influential roles, younger people are making necessary, healing corrections.

But.. oh… what a time. Oh, what we did to our identity as Catholics.

Just one more. See? It is like liturgical road-kill!

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Posted in Brick by Brick, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill, The future and our choices, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged Folk Mass, Hootenanny Mass, Ray Repp, road-kill
109 Comments

REVIEW: The Roman Catholic Ceremonial: Volume I. The Ordinary Ceremonies by Jeffrey Collins.

Posted on 9 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Liturgical worship should be reverent, careful and the best we can accomplish. The expanding use of the Extraordinary Form will help to correct many of the aberrations inflicted on people through the Ordinary Form. Therefore, every priest, every seminarian, as many Catholics as possible should embrace also the Extraordinary Form, know it well and carry it out well and through it worship God well.

There are several good books available for people who need to learn or serve (or understand thoroughly) the Extraordinary Form. Here is another. I have spoken of it before, but it has been updated with corrections, clarifications, and a good index.

It is The Roman Catholic Ceremonial: Volume I. The Ordinary Ceremonies by Jeffrey Collins.

Here is the description (my emphases):

The Roman Catholic Ceremonial presents a thorough and accurate, yet simple, explanation of the ceremonies of the 1962 Roman Rite. Volume I,the present volume, contains the functions of the ordinary parish church. For all but the easiest ceremonies, scripts are provided for each participant to enable quick mastery of his particular duties. This feature will prove invaluable for the busy Master of Ceremonies, who often has little if any time to conduct rehearsals for even the greatest occasions. The text is rounded out with a clear exposition of basic ceremonial principles and the general rubrics of the 1962 Missal, as well as glossaries on ecclesiastical furnishing and vesture, and is complemented by schematic diagrams of the major liturgical functions. This Second Revised Edition includes an Index. Whether a novice altar boy or a Prince of the Church, every minister of the altar will find reliable answers to his rubrical questions in The Roman Catholic Ceremonial.

It is also affordable.

The author is working on a volume of Pontifical Ceremonies.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, REVIEWS, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged ceremonies, Extraordinary Form, Jeffrey Collins, liturgy, Master of Ceremonies, MC, rubrics, worship
6 Comments

QUAERITUR: Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Posted on 9 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

According to the Liturgy of the Hours note for the Baptism of the Lord this feast is to be omitted when Epiphany falls on a Sunday with a date of January 7 or 8. In the Ordo for the Archdiocese of Chicago and the dioceses of Joliet and Rockford it is listed for January 9. Which is correct?

The calendar gets complicated at this time of year.

It is a good practice to follow the official Ordo of the place where you are.

My understanding is that the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, in the newer Ordinary Form calendar, falls today, 9 January. Thus, Christmastide would end in the Novus Ordo and tomorrow will be Tuesday of the 1st Week of Ordinary Time.

In the traditional Extraordinary Form calendar, the Commemoration of the Baptism of the Lord falls on 13 January, which would have been be the Octave of Epiphany. For the Extraordinary Form we are in the Season of or rather Time after Epiphany until Septuagesima on 5 February.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged calendar, liturgical year, Time after Epiphany
22 Comments

Your good news and your weekend sermon.

Posted on 9 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have good news for us?

Was there a good point from the Sunday sermon you heard… or gave?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
51 Comments

PODCAzT 125: The liturgical year and who we are. Season Appropriate Poems.

Posted on 8 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In this PODCAzT I return to a theme I have explored many times: the liturgical year. We will hear about the Advent and Christmas cycle so that we can get our bearings on where we are… and who we are.

Listen & subscribe: Apple Podcasts Overcast Pocket Casts RSS feed

I also, from requests, include winter and even liturgical season appropriate poetry from Robert Herrick, T.S. Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Roman Liturgy’s Benedicite.

I know I will have requests about the piece of music at the end. It is called “King David’s Royal Star” from the Christmas CD of the wonderful Benedictine’s of Mary, Queen of Apostles near Kansas City, MO. You… indeed you… can buy their disks and help them. Listen to them while shaving with soap from the Dominicans and while drinking Mystic Monk Coffee from Carmelites!

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, PODCAzT | Tagged Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles
5 Comments

1st Vespers for Holy Family (BrevRom): “ineffable” sighting

Posted on 7 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

1st Vespers for Holy Family (BrevRom): "ineffable" sighting For my weary brethren, 1st Vespers for Holy Family from the Breviarium Romanum. I sing the hymn and recite the rest. FOLLOW ALONG.

There is a prime use of “ineffable”.

The hymn is beautiful in both words and melody. Here is a loose poetic translation:

Hymn (O lux beata caelitum)

O highest hope of mortals,
Blest Light of Saints above,
O Jesu, on whose boyhood
Home smiled with kindly love;

And thou whose bosom nursed him,
O Mary, highly graced,
Whose breast gave milk to Jesus,
Whose arms thy God embraced;

And thou of all men chosen
To guard the Virgin’s fame,
To whom God’s Son refused not
A Father’s gracious name;

Born for the nation’s healing,
Of Jesse’s lineage high,
Behold the suppliants kneeling,
O hear the sinners’ cry!

The sun returned to evening,
Dusks all the twilight air:
We, lingering here before you,
Pour out our heartfelt prayer.

Your home was as a garden
Made glad with fairest flowers;
May life thus blossom sweetly
In every home of ours.

All praise to Thee, O Jesus,
who parents dost obey;
Praise to the sovereign Father
and Paraclete for aye.
Amen.

V. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord.
R. They shall praise thee for ever and ever

That one verse in Latin is worth the effort to learn Latin and to learn to sing Gregorian chant:

Maria, dives gratia,
O sola quae casto potes
Fovere Iesum pectore,
Cum lacte donans oscula.

Literally:

O Mary, rich in grace,
O lone one who are able with a chaste
breast to warm Jesus,
giving kisses with milk.

The Collect:

Domine Iesu Christe, qui Mariae et Ioseph subditus, domesticam vitam ineffabilibus virtutibus consecrasti: fac nos, utriusque auxilio, Familiae sanctae tuae exemplis instrui, et consortium consequi sempiternum.

Lord Jesus Christ, who subject to Mary and Joseph, consecrated family life by unspeakable virtues, cause us, by the aid of both, to be instructed by the examples of Your Holy Family, and to attain everlasting fellowship.

Posted in PRAYERCAzT: What Does The (Latin) Prayer Really Sound L | Tagged Holy Family, ineffable, Latin, O lux beata caelitum, vespers
5 Comments

QUAERITUR: Friday fish and chips cooked in beef fat? WDTPRS POLL: “meatless Fridays”.

Posted on 7 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

POLL BELOW!

From a reader:

I was watching TV last night & on the program they were talking about fish & chips fried in rendered beef fat at a restaurant.

Fish & Chips is one of my favorite Friday dishes and I assume that it’s cooked in vegetable oil of some kind. But, if I am at a restaurant, how could I know if they don’t state something on the menu (pretty common in California where I live). If it doesn’t say anything and I order and eat the fish & chips cooked in beef fat on a Friday in Lent have I broken the abstinence rules? Or is the fat merely the method of cooking, sort of like boiling pasta in water.

QUAERITUR: Friday fish and chips cooked in beef fat? WDTPRS POLL: "meatless Fridays".

CLICK TO BUY

Remember that if you cook pasta in water, the pasta absorbs the water. If the fish and chips are cooked in beef fat, you are also consuming some beef fat.

This is a great question for an Unreconstructed Ossified Manualist.

Prümmer says,

“The law of abstinence forbids eating meat and broth from meat, but not eggs, milk products, and also whatsoever condiments from the fat of animals.”

Sabetti-Barrett says:

“QUAER. 2. Quid dicendum de usu laridi?

Resp. Certum est non licere illud edere per frustra…

What is to be said about the use of lard?

Resp. It is clear that it is not permitted to eat it groundlessly and for an accompaniment with bread, because it is considered meat. It is permitted to use it even in evening snacks (refectiuncula), either as a condiment or in order to cook foods, provided that beforehand it will have been liquified. …

But wait! There’s more!

[Time for a COFFEE BREAK!]

Paul VI’s Poenitemini says:

“The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, the products of milk or condiments made of animal fat. The law of fasting allows only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening, observing–as far as quantity and quality are concerned–approved local custom.”

The language of “condiments” has remained.

Therefore, you can cook your fish in beef fat. Use of fat from beef would not violate your abstinence from meat.

Thank you for being concerned about this.

Last August I posted a WDTPRS POLL about what you think about the proposition that the US bishops should reestablish meatless Fridays as our form of penance for all Fridays of the year. The bishops of England and Wales did this.

I am repeating that poll (with a slight difference) here below.

You can vote even if you are not registered here. Please give your reasons in the combox below, respecting always the people who make arguments other than your own.

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Please use the Tweet and +1 and Facebook “like” buttons so we can get a high turn out. Bloggers, I would appreciate it if you would also give us a lift.