Darning with faint praise?

Posted on 13 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A priest friend forwarded me a blurb from the Dan Schutte Newsletter.

St. Louis Jesuits Honored
Jubilate Deo Award

Each year since 1996 the National Association of Pastoral Musicians bestows the Jubilate Deo Award on a musician who has made an extraordinary musical contribution to the life of the American church.

This year the award is being given to the St. Louis Jesuits – Bob Dufford, S.J., John Foley, S.J., Tim Manion, Roc O’Connor, S.J. and Dan Schutte.  Together, they’ve recorded ten collections of music and individually over the years, that number totals thirty-one.  After forty years, their music continues to be a significant part of the worship of the American church today.

In 2005, after a twenty year hiatus, they reunited to record a new collection of music to celebrate this anniversary.  The collection, Morning Light, features twelve new compositions by the group.  While recording this new CD, they experienced once again that special quality their collaborative process gives their music.

The Jubilate Deo Award is a great honor and these five men join the  company  of past recipients such as Joseph Gelineau, S.J., Rembert Weakland, OSB, Clarence Joseph Rivers, Jan Michael Joncas, Lawrence Heiman and others.  The award will be presented to the St. Louis Jesuits at the NPM Convention this summer in Louisville.

Think of the honor!  One of the past recipients was non-other than Rembert Weakland!

Ahhhh… those were the days!

The Spirit of Vatican II was moving and letting in new air… never mind the smoke.

Those heady, halcyon days of wholesale discontinuity and destruction.

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Committed to Catholic teaching or “aspects” of Catholic teaching?

Posted on 13 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Pat Archbold has a hard hitting piece at his place about the President of Notre-Dame University, which as you remember gave the most aggressively pro-abortion President we have ever seen an honorary law degree.

Here is the first part.

I believe that Roxanne Martino, the University of Notre Dame Trustee who just resigned over her support of virulently pro-abortion groups, was just a mere symptom of a much greater disease.

Something has been sticking in my craw these last few days. It is this line used by Martino in her resignation statement and is similar to the defense mounted for her by Fr. Jenkins and his minions on the Notre Dame Board.

“In the best interests of the University, I regretfully have decided to step down from the Notre Dame Board of Trustees,” Martino said in the statement. “I dearly love my alma mater and remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching and to the mission of Notre Dame. I had looked forward to contributing in this new role, but the current controversy just doesn’t allow me to be effective.”

I remain fully committed to all aspects of Catholic teaching. Aspects? If my wife quizzed me on whether I am a faithful husband and I responded by saying, “Honey, I remain fully committed to all aspects of our marriage vows,” she would slap my face and run off crying.

[…]

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Possible threat against Pope Benedict

Posted on 13 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Apparently some Islamic group said that the Pope would be an “easy target”, and so security has been increased.

Security was considerably increased in the Vatican yesterday after direct threats against the Holy Father were made in a recently-released video by a member of an extreme Islamist group. The Pope and the Italian Prime Minister were called “easy  targets” in the video. [Source: various Italian agencies, including AGI.]

Biretta tip Rorate.

Do pray for the Holy Father.  You could ask Sts. Nunilo and Alodia to intercede with God to change the hearts of the terrorists who would think such a thing.

From the the Enchiridion of Indulgences, #25:

A partial indulgence is granted to the Christian faithful who, in a spirit of filial devotion, devoutly recite any duly approved prayer for the Supreme Pontiff (e.g., the Oremus pro Pontifice):

V. Let us pray for our Pontiff, Pope Benedict.

R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and bless him upon earth, and deliver him not to the will of his enemies.

Our Father.  Hail Mary.

Let us pray.

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Benedict, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Also, on the live stream of the Z-Cam & Radio Sabina, I have cycling through the playlist prayers for the Holy Father, the the whole Rosary in Latin, and other prayers and meditations.

If you want to urge others to pray for the Holy Father, you might get some little buttons and hand them out.  Perhaps in the parish?

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Any good news for the readers?

Posted on 13 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have any good news to share?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Pentecost: some music and a sermon

Posted on 12 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was at Assumption Grotto in Detroit for Mass for Pentecost Sunday.  The Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form was intended to be dovetailed into the Call To Holiness Conference, held this weekend… with the blessing of Archbishop Vigneron.

Armed with my little mp3 recorder I caught some of the sounds of the Mass.

In the first audio file, you will hear some excerpts.  First, the Sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus, sung by a capable schola of women only.  I quite enjoy chant sung by women.  It has a different quality altogether.   Then there is the Preface of the Mass, with a bit of the Sanctus.  It was an orchestral Mass by Franz Schubert.  At the end, since someone had carried the recorder from where it had been left near the pulpit into the sacristy even before the recessional returned, you will hear the “Prosit” and response, with the blessings for the servers.  One little kid was obviously keyed into the Latin.  He received a cordial impromptu quiz about a word, which he passed with flying colors!

Then, in the second file, there is the sermon for the Mass, with a focus on the nine-fold fruit of the Holy Spirit Paul speaks about in Galatians 5.  [UPDATE: For the sermon, go HERE.]

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More American Catholic Council joy in Detroit! A local TV report.

Posted on 12 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There was a story on the local news about the American Catholic Council… Council… get it?  Council?

Several points in the report were misleading.  For example, there could only be canonical consequences, realistically, for clerics of the Archdiocese of Detroit who participated in their “liturgy”, in direct defiance of the written communication of the Archbishop.

And the “arguments” used by the people who gave sound bites…. well… not really that compelling.

The people who attended this are … how to put this in language they might understand readily and accept… well… they are “on the wrong side of history”.

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Life imitates art! The American Catholic Council’s “Litany of Lament”

Posted on 12 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the American Catholic Council’s program.  On the opening day they had a moving and meaningful paraliturgy which included the

Litany of Lament.

Here it is from their program. I add some comments:

(When the female lector reads, FROM THE FOUR WINDS COME, O SPIRIT, Spirit-bearers waving banners enter the assembly from four directions.  As they pass by your seat, please rise up!). [Rise up… get it?  Huh?]

Presider [a woman.  Should that be “presideress”?]: O Holy God hear us as we cry to you.  Our Church is filled with dried bones in a world hungering for your Life.  [Correction: Cobo Center was filled with dry bones.]

Litany of Lament:

Refrain from the Veni Sancte Spiritus [Which turns this whole thing into a form of blasphemy, actually.]

1. Weakened by structures that ignore your Wisdom [I suspect they are using this as a kind of code or shorthand.  Feminists call the Spirit “Sophia”, which they say is feminine, and therefore the Spirit is feminine.  Get it?  Huh?] speaking through the people of god, we cry…

2. Angered by church leaders who protect pedofiles and persecute prophets, we cry…

3. (In Spanish): Denied Eucharist because of the failure to address the priest shortage, we cry.

4. Aching for the Eucharist to be celebrated as nourishment for sinners, not a reward for good behavior, we cry…

5. Wondering why we are closing parishes rather than opening ordination, we cry…

6. (In German): Longing to celebrate creative theologians rather than mourn their marginalization, we cry… [Remember… Hans Kung was supposed to be there.  This is pure sucking up.]

7. Oppressed by rigid structures of racism, we cry…

8. Blind to the beauty of God’s image in gay and lesbian people we cry…

9. Betrayed by church structures that promote sexism and misogyny, we cry… [Wow.  Things are pretty bad in these structures. At this point in the Litany you expect someone is going to bring in razor blades so they can all slit their wrists.]

10. Outraged by bishops’ refusal to use structures of their own creation to be accountable to survivors of clergy sex abuse, we cry…

11. Dismayed by our own guild and failure to confront the structures of abuse, we cry… [They really have a thing about structures, don’t they?]

12. Amidst the shattered images of godliness and ministry, we cry…

[Then after 2 minutes of silent prayer a women presider in white says :]

In silence, please join in the ancient Christian gesture signifying the presence of the Holy Spirit, the laying on of hands.  Place your hands on the head of your neighbor and pray silently, acknowledging the gift of the Spirit within them.  The allow your neighbor to pray silently over you.

Then they prayed a prayer composed by Pope John XXIII used at the beginning of all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council.

It’s a Council.. get it?  They are the one’s taking the roles of bishops at a Council?  Huh?  GET IT?

I wonder if that blue rinse stuff comes off on your hands.  Dunno.

Dismayed… Outraged… Aching… Wondering… Longing…Oppressed…Angered… Weakened….Denied….Blind… Betrayed… Amidst… oppps that one didn’t fit.

Once again I am reminded of the Little Rascals films where the kids have a show in the big barn.  You know… Darla, Spanky, Buckwheat, Alfalfa.

They too, those little rascals, in their little films, played the role of the poor and the oppressed.  They too struggled against the rich kids of the neighborhood. They broke boundaries of sexism and racism.. and speciesism.  They had their canine pal with a ring around … ummmm… its eye named… I am not making this up… named “Pansy“.

So, breaking all sorts of barriers!

It was a spirited group.  And this is what most of the participants of the ACC watched when they were kids!  Errr… height-challenged, Mother-Earth-annual-orbit-deprived autonomous persons.

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Canadian teens stand up to heresy in their Catholic High School

Posted on 12 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day we learned from Archbishop Hon, the Chinese-born Secretary of Propaganda Fide, that an illicit episcopal consecration was averted, probably because the people stood against it.

Here is another example of resistance “from below” properly offered in the face of improper use of authority and promotion of heresy.

On LifeSite there is a story about a girl who stood up for the faith in the face of a dreadful and erroneous old chestnut that, in the Resurrection, Jesus did not physically rise from the dead.  My emphases and comments.

NORTH BAY, Ontario, June 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “If Catholic students are required to go to so much trouble with their Catholic teachers to defend a teaching as simple as the resurrection, what do they have to do in their Catholic schools to defend teachings on abortion, homosexuality, or same-sex ‘marriage’?” asked Suresh Dominic of Campaign Life Catholic commenting on the case of Francesca Sinicrope.

A Grade 12 student of North Bay, Ontario, Sinicrope has recently gone to battle with a teacher and principal at her Catholic High School over the truth of Christ’s Resurrection.

“He told us people have taken the Bible too literally,” Sinicrope told LifeSiteNews in a recent interview. “He began saying that it was like a metaphor that you follow…He said that Jesus never resurrected.”

While the principal says an investigation has cleared the teacher of wrongdoing, another classmate has corroborated Sinicrope’s account.

During the week leading up to Easter this year the Catholic High School decided to place crosses in every classroom, recounted the teen.  Following Holy Thursday Mass, Francesca’s sociology teacher provided an explanation of the crosses to the whole class, saying that the same message would be given to all the classes.

Francesca’s video footage, posted on YouTube, recounts the events.  “He told my whole class that Jesus had never resurrected,” the 17 year-old said. “That is so unbelievable to me in a Catholic school.”

“My really good friend asked him, ‘So you’re saying that Jesus never resurrected?’ and he answered ‘yes’,” Francesca continued. “My teacher went against the Catholic faith and the school mission statement.”

A friend and classmate, Celine Giroux, backed up Francesca’s account.  “He began talking about how we as Catholics took the understanding of the Resurrection too far,” Celine told LifeSiteNews.  When the teacher told students the Resurrection had never happened, Celine says she challenged his statement.

“So what you’re trying to tell me is that what I’ve believed in all my life is wrong, that Jesus never resurrected?” Celine asked. The 18 year-old recalled that the teacher answered: “The moral is right, it’s just the story is wrong.”

[Get this…] “Because He died in our honour we should be nice to each other,” was the teacher’s moral, according to Celine.  Francesca’s earlier recollection agreed, “He told us the crucifix represents helping others, when we look at it that’s all it’s supposed to mean.”

According to Francesca, the event should never have happened.  As she notes in her video account, her parents submitted a detailed “Traditional Values” form to the school at the beginning of the semester.  The form specified requirements for parental notification or exemption from certain areas of teaching when “concepts or values” conflicting with the family’s values were presented.

[…]

Read there for the rest of the story.

WDTPRS KUDOS to these kids.  Good for them!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged , , ,
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Hello Detroit! ACC UNDERWAY!

Posted on 11 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

20110611-085505.jpg

See who’s speaking!

http://americancatholiccouncil.org/files/2009/05/ACC_convention_brochure_3-2011.pdf

UPDATE:

A priest friend just asked if the was a special cargo plane for the big puppets.

UPDATE:

Do the airlines charge extra for all the extra baggage the speakers are hauling around?

UPDATE:

Here’s Joan Chittister’s intro to her prayer for Pentecost as published here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sister-joan-chittister-osb/pentecost-prayer_b_872130.html

“The Holy Spirit embodies the life force of the universe, the power of God, the animating energy present in all things and captured by none. On this great feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit of God, I invite you to pray with me”

It reminded me a lot of Obi-Wan Kenobi:

“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”

UPDATE:

A paragraph from the Detroit Free Press:

http://www.freep.com/article/20110611/NEWS01/110611007/Catholics-Cobo-blast-leaders

Kung, who could not attend in person because of health reasons, was applauded by the audience, a mostly elderly crowd disappointed at what they see as the church’s rightward turn.

You know…. couldn’t have put it better myself!

UPDATE:

I was looking for a Twitter hashtag for this ACC conference. All I could find was #geriatric

UPDATE:

Some swag:

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UPDATE:

An action shot!

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Better: Call To Action shot!

UPDATE:

There are helpful volunteers in case you get even more lost and confused.

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UPDATE:

The Cobo Center is a huge venue with many and diverse groups.

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UPDATE

I wonder if this is what Charles Marlow felt like.

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UPDATE

Made it out alive.

20110611-075958.jpg

Posted in Lighter fare, Our Catholic Identity, SESSIUNCULA, The Drill, Throwing a Nutty, What Fr. Z is up to |
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Prayer on the Vigil of Pentecost

Posted on 11 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Last Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension.

Today is the Vigil of Pentecost.

The original novena is underway.

Pray to the Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,

R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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