WDTPRS POLL: Your Mass preparation and follow up during the week

Posted on 4 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am curious about your preparation for Holy Mass or Divine Liturgy on Sundays and Holy Days or Feasts.  This applies to both forms of the Roman Rite and other Rites as well.

Please choose the best answer and, if you care to, add a comment, below.

For Sundays and Holy Days...

View Results

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Our Catholic Identity, POLLS, The Drill | Tagged , , ,
38 Comments

NCR’s attack on Pope Benedict

Posted on 4 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The fishwrappers of the National catholic Fishwrap have today an editorial on their website which is an open attack on Pope Benedict.  It is really long, some 1400 words.  I don’t know whether I will treat it here in full.  It is pretty bad.

I will share a little bit, however, which I found amusing.

The casus belli was the removal of the Australian Bishop William Morris from governance of the Diocese of Toowoomba.  Bp. Morris wrote and distributed, the heretical notions that women should be ordained and that Protestant “orders” (which they lack) should be “recognized”.  Of less controversy were his suggestion that married men should be ordained, etc.  The Fishwrap had a brain-bleed over the fact that Archbp. Chaput was involved in the inquiries into the case of Bp. Morris and that this fine, upstanding, forward-thinking Australian father to his children was removed for doing little more than offering constructive solutions to problems in his diocese and the larger Church (which, I must add, he is in part creating in his diocese).

I am left with the question: How is it that ecclesiastical authority contemplates removing the term “Catholic” from hospitals which harm human life through abortion, and will not remove the word “Catholic” from the title of this newspaper which harms the spiritual life of the faithful?  An editorial against the Pope, in which he and other Church authorities are compared, among other things, to Stalinist apparatchiks, and which openly promotes heresy needs to be addressed by ecclesiastical authority.

FishwrapWe join the Fishwrap’s hectoring of Pope Benedict in medias res.  They just referred to the fact that there are not many “right-wing” Catholics in the D. of Toowoomba, and the bishop calls those who are there the “Temple Police”.

You know the type. In the U.S., they are the crowd that takes marching orders from The Wanderer, [For which I have written a weekly column on liturgical translation and other liturgical issues for 11 years.] their time at Mass searching for a violation of a rubric rather than receiving whatever wisdom or grace might come their way. Then, having detected an “Alleluia” where an “Amen” was called for, they write letters to Vatican congregations, hoping for a sympathetic ear to their pathetic pleas.

Fishwrap HQOn another page of the Fishwrap‘s site I noted this with great interest.

Webathon: We are way behind our schedule to reach $50,000

Wednesday afternoon in our Kansas City office and we have raised some $15,000 of the $50,000 we hope to raise by the end of this week’s Webathon. $15,000 is no little stack of cash – but it is a long way from fulfilling our hopes for the outcome of this week.

I think a good way to show what you think of the NCR would be, first, to talk someone out of a subscription and, then, a spiffy donation to WDTPRS using the donation button below.


If every reader here would pitch in $5, that would make a statement, given the number of readers we have.  I’ll keep track of what comes in through this button.

Finally, pray for the conversion of the staff of the Fishwrap or, that lacking, the failure of their paper and site.  Also say a prayer – now – for the aforementioned Bp. Morris and now Brisbane’s Auxiliary Bishop Brian V. Finnegan, appointed by Benedict XVI as the administrator of the Diocese of Toowoomba.

UPDATE: Some people had problems with the donation button, above.  I have tried to fix it.  If it doesn’t work for you, there is always a button on the sidebar.

UPDATE: Under that NCFishwrap story about being behind in fundraising, note well that there are ringing endorsements of by Sr. Joan Chittister and Sr. Terese Kane, former head of the LCWR, both card carrying members of the “Magisterium of Nuns“:

Today, on this site Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, a former NCR board member and long time columnist, writes about the meaning of the Roy Bourgeois tragedy. She also speaks, in a video, about the importance of helping NCR.

The other day, Sr. Theresa Kane — a former Leadership Conference of Women Religious head, a former head of the Mercy Sisters and a former NCR board member — sent us a message saying how important she thinks NCR is in her life.

I respond saying:

And subscribe to The Wanderer‘s online edition and the Catholic Herald DIGITAL.
UPDATE 5 May 1616 GMT:
We are coming up on the 24 hr mark since I posted this.  Quite a few donations have come in!  Each one feels like an adrenaline boost.  I have tried to write a personal note to each person who sent something.  One email was kicked back as undeliverable, to an address that started ccd…  If I missed someone, sorry about that.  It was not intentional.  Also, since this Project of Protest has spiritual consequences, I will again say Mass remembering the intentions of those who used the donation button on Saturday morning.  I have marked the contributions which came in through the button, above, and I am taking names as it were… but in a good way.

Also, some of you are giving more than $5.  That’s great, of course.  But if all the readers here gave a fiver, it would be greater still.  Obviously.  I need more coffee.

I will do something very Catholic with the money, with a strong tradition overtone since this is in protest against Fishwrap, perhaps something for my 20th, coming up.
UPDATE 5 May 2009 GMT:
From a donating reader and faithful supporter of all that is good true and beautiful:
As a prospective police officer I am compelled to support all moral police-related causes. This includes the Temple Police!
As the son of a police officer, I am delighted to receive your support and promise to continue to send out marching orders.
UPDATE 6 May 0327 GMT:

From an obviously intelligent reader and donor:

I only recently, January 2011, came back to the Church, but in that short time I have found you to be a constant voice of reason and sense in a world gone mad. Thank you. I know your primary target is the NCFishwrap, but as I am English I would be grateful if you could add a prayer for the Tablet as well.
Sure!   I can even help with a Latin text for that prayer.

And once The Tablet is ready to go, it can be wrapped up in you know what and sent to sleep with the fishes.
Also, from a different reader and donor with good taste:
Yesterday I responded to the NCR’s plea for cash by commenting on their site that I am glad I am most likely young enough to be able in the future to celebrate the final issue of the NCR. But this is even better.
May even the most seasoned readers here be able to say the same.
Posted in Green Inkers, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged , , , , , ,
55 Comments

Of gratitude, pasta, optimism, and final huzzays

Posted on 4 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The UPS truck – a happy sight – just deposited a package sent by an esteemed reader, MMK, who spotted Rigatoncini by Rustichella on my wishlist.

20110504-105641.jpg

This is a good brand.  The pasta isn’t merely a platform for the preparation, you know.  It should have its own flavor.  When you cook it, it absorbs the liquid it is cooked in, so the liquid makes a difference as well.  Adding salt, or not, or broth, or not, or having good water, or not… matters.  You can also finish cooking your dry pasta in the sauce, which will be absorbed.  I like these small rigatoni with the little ridges, which hold the sauces, or “gravies” as some call them, with which you dress them.  They are especially good for pesto.

20110504-105701.jpg

Since I am shifting now again to eating a main meal at midday, I will now instruct Preserved Killick to
extract some sauce of some sort from the freezer.  Now that the season is changing I can use up some of that pesto from last summer.

Finally, I can’t resist posting a photo of the last bit of snow.  Today may be its last huzzay.  I must now touch a belaying pin for the mere thought that it could be over at long last.

20110504-105727.jpg

Lately I also received from MC the Guidebook for Confessors by Michael E. Giesler, and from unidentified but no less esteemed readers some volumes of English translations of St. Augustine’s Expositions of the Psalms, which are useful for a lectio continua.  Unidentified as you may be, I nevertheless remember you at Mass, for it is an honor and duty to pray for benefactors.

I also have received John Henry Newman: Fighter, Convert and Cardinal by Anthony Mockler.  Thanks as well to SE for The Person of Christ by Donald MacLeod: not a Catholic book, but an honest piece of Christology.  Christology may be the very worst division of theology these days. It has languished for decades, I’m afraid.  TB, DDC, PS, KK, BH.  If I have missed you, I beg your indulgence.

Lastly, I have a single male Cardinal visiting regularly.  I hope he finds a girlfriend soon and starts a local consistory.

I will need more feed soon.

And since spring is springing I have put out orange slices.  It is surely too early, but I would like to catch the attention of the first comers and the added color is cheering to the eye, and I need all the cheering I can get.

This Chickdee tried some, but I don’t think he was very impressed.

Time to put out nesting materials too.

Posted in Fr. Z's Kitchen, SESSIUNCULA | Tagged , , , , , , , ,
11 Comments

Of Monnica and Martyrs

Posted on 4 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

St. MonicaToday in the older, venerable, traditional Roman calendar, is the feast of St. Monica, widow and mother of St. Augustine of Hippo.  In the post-Conciliar calendar her feast was transferred to the end of August.  Monnica, is a spelling that conforms to her Punic origin.

Monica died at Rome’s port Ostia, prevented from her return to N. Africa by a naval blockade.  She caught a fever and passed away in 387, saying,

“Bury my body wherever you will; let not care of it cause you any concern. One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.”

Much of St. Monica’s life is described by Augustine in Book 9 the Confessions.  There are moving passages about her overcoming an addiction to alcohol, her dealings with a difficult and violent husband whom she helped to convert, her perseverance in promoting her son – whom she insisted be given the imperial name Augustus – and her good death.  Augustine had her buried in Ostia and had a stone set up for her.  After the sack of the area by the Visigoths in 410, he wrote to have her stone renewed.  Though her body was subsequently moved to the Church of St. Augustine in Rome, her stone was discovered after WWII by children trying to set up a basketball hoop, a game they learned from American GI’s.

After Augustine ditched her in N. Africa to go alone to Italy, but she soon followed.  In Milan, Monnica had some dealings St. Ambrose concerning her use of N. African customs in N. Italy, which scandalized people.  He instructed her to do as they did and gave her the example of his own willingness to conform to the customs of Rome when he was in Rome.  Whence the famous proverb.  She must have been a formidable woman to have garnered attention from Ambrose.  Furthermore, Augustine himself gives her an important role in his early philosophical dialogues, an unprecedented role for a woman in ancient literature.  As Augustine and his companions were preparing for baptism during their working retreat at Cassiciacum, Monica would sometimes be asked – as the baptized person present to answer certain questions.  She, therefore, exemplified something of Augustine’s homo spiritalis he would develop later, a figure who might even correct a bishop.

In life, Monica was a fascinating woman, a loving wife and mother, and after death a strong intercessor.

Here is a photo of a first class relic of St. Monica, in my possession.

St. Monica

Today is also the feast of several English martyrs.

Who would like to have a go at this entry from the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum?

6. Londinii in Anglia, sanctorum presbyterorum martyrum Ioannis Houghton, Roberti Lawrence et Augustini Webster, priorum cartusiarum Londiniensis, Ballavallensis et Axholmiensis, atque Richardi Reynold, ex Ordine Sanctae Brigittae, qui, cum fidem patrum impavide professi essent, Tyburni ad supplicium laniatus tracti sunt sub Henrico rege Octavo.  Cum eis beatus Ioannes Haile, presbyter, parochus loci Isleworth prope urbem, eodem patibulo suspensus est.

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged , , , , ,
10 Comments

Card. Bertone offers up more about the Third Secret of Fatima

Posted on 4 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Click to buy

Andrea Tornielli has a piece about interviews given by His Eminence Tarcisio Card. Bertone in the days surrounding the beatification of Pope John Paul II during which the topic of the “third secret” of Fatima was brushed up.

At the end of Tornielli’s piece he quotes the Cardinal from an interview with Gr1 during which he said (my trans):

The third mystery of Fatima is fulfilled in part in the description which was made by Sr. Lucia, but as then-Card. Ratzinger said, the Immaculate Hard of Mary will triumph.  It is necessary to cultivate hope and not be pessimists (catastrofici).”

Tornielli analyzes (my trans):

Words completely in harmony with what Benedict XVI affirmed on the flight which took him to Portugal a year ago, as well as in a passage of the homily of the Mass celebrated at Fatima.  In respect to 2000, when the vision of Fatima was offered in a reading which referred only to the past, there is therefore greater caution (“it was fulfilled in part”) and thus leaves open the possibility that not all of the prophecy – understood in the biblical sense and not as a film that describes the future – has yet been fulfilled.

Some of you may be familiar with the book by Antonio Socci, translated into English a few years ago.  Socci took exception to some of the information Card. Bertone was sharing about the Third Secret.

Posted in Linking Back | Tagged , , , , ,
59 Comments

SSPX reaction to the Anglican Ordinariate and the recent converts

Posted on 4 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Long-time participant HE alerted me to the following from the site of the SSPX.

They are happy about the reception of so many former Anglicans entering into the Roman obedience.

As you know, Anglicans are able to enter full union with the Successor of Peter and also retain their English Anglican traditions and practices.

My emphases and comments:

GOOD NEWS:
900 Anglicans become Catholic at Easter
5-3-2011

While celebrating the Paschal season’s glad tidings of joy, it is appropriate that we relay the good news of 900 Anglicans converting to Catholicism on Easter, a traditional time when converts are received into the Church. This encouraging number is all the more so when we consider that it included 61 former Anglican ministers. [Note, they didn’t write “priests and bishops”. The Anglican Ordinariate was formed after its future leadership adhered to the teaching of the Catholic Church expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.]

Despite some reservations about the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus and the personal ordinariate that has been erected for such converts from Anglicanism, [See my comment, above.] nonetheless we genuinely rejoice to hear of their recent conversion and sincerely welcome them as new members of the Mystical Body of Christ. May they unceasingly turn to their ordinariate’s patroness, Our Lady of Walsingham, for assistance in the restoration of the Faith of their Catholic ancestors, whose fervent devotion to the Blessed Mary Ever Virgin once caused their country to be called, Our Lady’s Dowry. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?  C’mon! A loud “AMEN!”?]

We also pray for all of this year’s Easter converts that they will persevere in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and thereby earn the eternal reward of the beatific vision of Our Risen Lord.  [“AMEN!”]

I would love to see someday a statement put out by the Anglican Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham rejoice over the reconciliation of the SSPX.

Perhaps one day soon will will see an Ordinariate (or something) for the SSPX which would make it possible to have manifestly full Communion with the Successor of Peter and also be able to preserve our Roman Catholic traditions and practices.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , , , , , ,
19 Comments

What NOT to do if you don’t like the new translation

Posted on 4 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have often said that people who don’t like the new, corrected translation of the Roman Missal should protest by refusing to use it and using instead only Latin.

Someone else thinks that it might be good to go to a mosque.

From His Hermeneuticalness comes this.

The mosque – not the best alternative to the new ICEL

Fr Michael Brown at Forest Murmurs has written an amusing riposte to a letter in Northern Cross, the newspaper for the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. In the letter, Mr Loughran said regarding the new ICEL translation:

I promise that I will approach it with all goodwill but I have to say this: if the word CONSUBSTANTIAL is there, I’m off to the mosque.

[…]

Okay… this bloke may have actually gone that one extra stop beyond Redbridge, if you get my drift.

Even if that was a joke, just how nuts is that?

In the Catholic Herald, the UK’s best Catholic weekly, last week and again in this week’s number, I have columns in my series And With Your Spirit which discuss the choice of “consubstantial” in the Profession of Faith.  Maybe that will help.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, New Translation, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged , , , , ,
33 Comments

Minnesota: Bp. Sirba testifies for defense of marriage amendment

Posted on 3 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Catholic Spirit, Archdiocesan newspaper of my native place, has a piece about the testimony in defense of marriage given to the House Civil Law Committee of the Minnesota Legislature by His Excellency Most. Rev. Paul Sirba, Bishop of Duluth.  For this statement he spoke for all the bishops of Minnesota.

From my personal experience, Bp. Sirba was one of the best priests I have ever known. I have known him for 30 years.

Duluth bishop testifies in favor of marriage amendment bill
May 3, 2011

Bishop Paul Sirba of Duluth testified May 2 before the House Civil Law Committee in support of a bill (HF 1613) that would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2012 to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. [Make it so!]

“Based on God’s Word given in divine revelation, we believe that marriage creates a sacred bond between spouses,” said Bishop Sirba, speaking for the Catholic bishops of Minnesota. “We hold this to be true not only for ourselves, but for all humanity.” [And marriage can be defended also from the point of view of reason, without the reference to divine revelation.]

The church’s convictions about marriage “find ample support in principles which can be discovered by human reason and which have been reflected throughout human history,” he said.

The House bill, introduced by Rep. Steve Gottwalt (R-St. Cloud), was approved by the Civil Law Committee by a 10-7 vote. A companion bill in the Senate (SF 1308), authored by Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove), was passed April 29 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Bishop John Quinn of Winona testified in support of the measure.

If both houses pass the measure, a question would be placed on the ballot in November 2012 asking voters: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?”

Bishop Sirba was the third of seven people to testify on behalf of the House bill. Hundreds of people were directed to a lower-level room to watch the proceedings via live broadcast, as only ticketed participants were allowed into the packed hearing room.

Testimony in support of the bill was also given by representatives from four other faith groups, University of St. Thomas School of Law professor Teresa Collett and Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute, [Participates at Acton Institute’s summer university.  Great speaker.] a project of the National Organization for Marriage. Amendment opponents also testified.

Bishop Sirba said “the committed relationship between one man and one woman calls forth the best of the spouses, not only for their own sake, but also for the well-being of their children and for the advancement of the common good.”

In defending the institution of marriage, he emphasized that “persons with same-sex attractions are our sisters and brothers, and should not be deprived of their authentic human rights, including the most fundamental rights of all — the right to life and the right to love.” [It is impossible for them to claim a right to marriage, which can only be between one man and one women.]

The Catholic Church opposes discrimination against any person based on a same-sex attraction, he said. “At the same time,” he added, “meeting authentic human needs does not require changing society’s definition of marriage.”

Bishop Sirba said the bishops believe the amendment is needed because several legislative proposals in the past few years have sought to “transform marriage from an institution focused on the needs of children into a totally new legal entity centered on the happiness of adults.”  [Can we conclude from this that passage of legislation allowing same-sex couples to “marry” and then in some way adopt children, is a form of child abuse?]

To view the Minnesota Catholic Conference’s “Marriage Amendment Resource Page,” visit HERE.

WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Sirba.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Fr. Z KUDOS, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , , ,
18 Comments

Of crackit gaberlunzies

Posted on 3 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was enjoying some jocular O’Brian references, for I was listening to part of a book as I worked over some tech updates.  I must share a passage.  We are close to the beginning of Treason’s Harbor (book 9 of the series) enter in media res.  Stephen Maturin, you must know, is the Napoleon detesting ship’s surgeon of Irish/Catalan extraction, a Papist and intelligence agent for the Royal Navy, and not just a surgeon but an actual doctor and naturalist and member of the Royal Academy.

He is also one of literature’s great masters of invective:

But Dr Maturin had been baulked of his John Dory. This was Friday; he had been promised a John Dory and he had looked forward to it; but on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the gregale had blown with such force that no fishing-boats had put out, and since Searle, unused to Catholic officers (rare birds in the Navy, where every lieutenant, on receiving his first commission, was required to renounce the Pope), had not even laid in any salt stock-fish, Maturin was obliged to dine on vegetables cooked in the English manner, waterlogged, tasteless, depressing. He was not ordinarily a greedy man, nor very ill-natured, but this disappointment had come on top of a series of vexations and some very grave anxieties, and on the second day of his giving up tobacco.
‘You might say that Duns Scotus stands in much the same relationship to Aquinas as Kant to Leibnitz,’ said Graham, carrying on their earlier conversation.
‘Sure, I have often heard the remark in Ballinasloe,’ said Maturin. ‘But I have no patience with Emmanuel Kant. Ever since I found him take such notice of that thief Rousseau, I have had no patience with him at all -for a philosopher to countenance that false ranting dog of a Swiss raparee shows either a criminal levity or a no less criminal gullibility. Gushing, carefully-calculated tears, false confidences, untrue confessions, enthusiasm -romantic vistas.’ His hand moved of itself to his cigar-case and came away disappointed. ‘How I hate enthusiasm and romantic vistas,” he said.
‘Davy Hume was of your opinion,’ said Graham. ‘I mean with regard to Monsieur Rousseau. He found him to be little more than a crackit gaberlunzie.’
‘But at least Rousseau did not make a noise,’ said Maturin, looking angrily at his friends in the farther bower. ‘Jean-Jacques Rousseau may have been an apostate, a cold-hearted prevaricating fornicator, but he did not behave like a Bashan bull when he was merry. Will you look how they call out to those young women now, for shame?’
The young women, who nightly capered on the stage or lent their voices to the chorus, and who often accompanied the younger officers on their boating picnics to Gozo or Camino or their expeditions to what meagre groves the island had to offer, did not seem outraged: they called back and laughed and waved, and one of them, coming up the steps, poised herself for a moment on the arm of Captain Pellew’s chair, drank off his glass of wine, and told them they must all come to the opera on Saturday; she was to sing the part of the fifth gardener. At this Captain Aubrey made some amazingly witty remark: it was lost to Maturin, but the roar of laughter that followed must certainly have been heard in St Angelo.
‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph,’ said Maturin. ‘In Ireland I have known many a numerous gathering rejoice at little more than a genteel murmur; and it is to be supposed that the same applies to Scotland.’
Graham could suppose no such thing, but he was benevolently inclined towards Maturin and he said no more than ‘Heuch: ablins.’

Okay.  From now on I shall use “crackit gaberlunzie” far more often than I, heuch, ablins, have hitherto.

If you want to listen to the unabridged audio books, seek out the recordings on Blackstone by Simon Vance.  He hits his stride in the second book and to the end he gets better and better.

Posted in Crackit Gaberlunzie, Lighter fare, O'Brian Tags | Tagged ,
6 Comments

Brick by brick, literally

Posted on 3 May 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Remember Fr. George David Byers?  He is the priest who has begun life as a hermit with the aim especially of praying for priests.   I wrote about him before, HERE.  His web site is HERE.

When you are using my donation button, which I hope you will do often, also think of him.   He is building his place.

Gotta support someone who supports priests in prayer.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
4 Comments