Catholic Herald DIGITAL: discount until 30 March – only £10 ($16)

Posted on 25 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I always look at The Catholic Herald, the UK’s best Catholic weekly. As a matter of of fact, I not only look at it, I now write for it too!  That’s new since last I told you about the discount on the digital version.

The Catholic Herald has a digital web-edition, the whole print edition available online. You see the paper as it appears in the printed version. That means you can also get the content they don’t put on their website.

Moreover, you don’t have to wait for it in the mail.

Furthermore, they send you an email when each new edition is ready.

In addition, there is an iPhone/iPad app for it!

They have a special discount going right now for the online, web-edition. Instead of the usual £38 it is £10 … a “tenner” (approx. $16.24 as I write). This is valid until March 30, 2011.Then it goes up to £12. Still, good, but not as good.

Direct link to Catholic Herald Digital (the e-paper)

Here is what you do:

  1. Add to basket
  2. Enter CHPROMO in to the ‘promotional field’
  3. Press ‘Go’
  4. Shopping cart calculates and shows the discount from £38 to £10
  5. ‘Proceed to Checkout’
  6. Pay
  7. User gets username and password by email.

ADVANTAGES FOR YOU.

  • The online version is posted up on a Friday – around lunchtime (in England, of course) – in line with the publishing date
  • Multi-user licensing is available eg. a theological college that will have several concurrent users (they need to contact the Catholic Herald by email)
  • Access to all the way back to 2003 archives
  • Quick word searching throughout the archives
  • Cut and paste feature
  • Auto screen width feature on the control panel
  • Quick email and web links from the paper


Enjoy it while drinking Mystic Monk Coffee which you can get through your monthly subscription!

Good combination, no?

Another advantage: You have every edition of the Catholic Herald archived online: less clutter!

England is a few years ahead of the US in the culture wars. Catholics there have a tougher row to hoe in the public square… or should I say ‘common’?  Americans can get some insights into what is around the corner.

Support a good Catholic weekly and get a great publication.

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged
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Vingt ans après

Posted on 25 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Twenty years ago today, I was into the office rather early.  The “office” I am talking about are the offices of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” on the ground floor of the Palazzo del Sant’Uffizio.

Being the first one in, I started up various machines, opened some windows to change the air in the place and … DING DONG … the doorbell rang.

On the doorstep was His Eminence Joseph Card. Ratzinger, who worked upstairs at the time.

“I wanted to give you the news as soon as possible”, he said.  “I had a phone call that Archbishop Lefebvre has died.”

Armed with that news, I phoned the residence of the President of the PCED, the late Augustin Card. Mayer, gave him the news, and suggested that we might have a busy day.

Twenty years ago today.

Here is a memorial card I have had in my breviary since 1991.

In your goodness, perhaps you will say a prayer for the late Archbishop Lefebvre today, on the 20th anniversary of his death.

May God be merciful to him.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged
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Should you ever advise someone not to become a Catholic?

Posted on 25 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the UK’s best Catholic weekly, the Catholic Herald, comes this… with a quote from one of WDTPRS’s favorites… sorry, favourites, His Hermeneuticalness.

Archbishop Antonio Mennini, Apostolic Nuncio to Britain, says in an interview with the Herald this week that he used to advise an Orthodox seminarian “not to become a Catholic”. The archbishop, who was nuncio to Russia for eight years, said:

I would tell him quite often: “You must not become a Catholic. You have to keep your faith in order to better serve your Church. Now you know us you can dream about going to Rome. You can go to Rome one day in order to study but you should remain a Russian Orthodox.”

The blogger Fr Tim Finigan says he finds the comment “disconcerting”: “Surely we can never say to someone that they must not become a Catholic?” he suggests.

Archbishop Mennini was, perhaps, in an exceptional situation: as nuncio to Russia, he was working very delicately to repair relations between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox.

But what about in more ordinary situations? A surprising example comes from the life of St Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei. A Jewish girl told him she wanted to become Catholic but that her parents were against it. He advised her not to make “any gestures of rebellion”: “You will be a good daughter of Christ,” he said, “if you are a good daughter of your parents.”

So, are there ever good reasons not to become Catholic? Or should people always be encouraged to convert?

Posted in New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity |
51 Comments

What will the art in the CTS Roman Missal be like?

Posted on 25 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On the site of the Catholic Truth Society, UK publisher of the new Roman Missal with the new, corrected ICEL translation, there are some images of … images in the new book.

A sample.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool |
13 Comments

Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in the UK!

Posted on 25 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am delighted to relate to the readership that there is now a Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in the UK.  The British Province of St. Pope Gregory the Great.

I am sure they chose Gregory the Great (+604) because he sent missionaries to England.

From their desire to continue the good work begun during Pope Benedict’s state visit, to continue that “Benedict Bounce”, the brethren have ganged up.

The Confraternity aims to promote fidelity, formation and fraternity among priests.

You will be able to donate to their effort through PayPal.  When they active their link it would be good for you to drop a tenner in their collection basket to give them a little seed money for their future projects.  If 100 readers would do that, I am sure they would be grateful.

Please stop and say a prayer to St. Gregory for their project.

I’ll let you know when you can send that tenner.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Mail from priests, The future and our choices |
3 Comments

25 March surprise!

Posted on 25 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is of course the day we celebrate the “fullness of time”.

In the fullness of time, the Eternal Word, the Second Person, took our humanity into an indestructible bond with His divinity.

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation.  It is nine months from Christmas.

Because of can. 1251 members of the Latin Church, usually bound to do penance on Fridays of Lent, are not bound today.

The people who put together the calendar that hangs on the walls of offices of the Roman Curia seem to have been unaware of can. 1251.  You can see at the bottom of today’s page “Astinenza dalle carni”.

But wait!  What is this we see?

It is the feast of the St. Dismas, the Good Thief.

Here is his entry from the Martyrologium Romanum:

2. Commemoratio sancti latronis, qui, in cruce Christum confessus, ab eo meruit audire: “Hodie mecum eris in paradiso”.

And from today’s LENTCAzT you can hear more about the Station, San Vitale in Fossa.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged
16 Comments

LENTCAzT 17: Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent

Posted on 25 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

These 5 minute daily podcasts for Lent are intended to give you a small boost every day, a little encouragement in your own use of this holy season.

Yes, this is the Feast of the Annunciation.  But this is a podcast for LENT.

Today is Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent. The Roman Station is San Vitale. The Titular Cardinal is Adam Card. Maida, Emeritus Archbishop of Detroit.

A hint at the thought: Would that our women would learn from the example of modesty here set before us.

Subscribe on iTunes. Be sure to “update“!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
2 Comments

WDTPRS Thursday in the 2nd Week of Lent (2002MR) – steadfastness and the human heart

Posted on 24 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the older, pre-conciliar Missal, today’s Collect was used on Wednesday of the 2nd Week of Lent as an Oratio super populum or “Prayer over the people” which followed the Post Communions of the Mass. As such, take note that the priest in praying does not refer to “us” and “we” as he does in normal Collects.   He prayers for the people on their behalf. This lends a different impact to today’s prayer.

COLLECT (2002MR):
Deus, innocentiae restitutor et amator,
dirige ad te tuorum corda servorum,
ut, Spiritus tui fervore concepto,
et in fide inveniantur stabiles,
et in opere efficaces.

The prayer has ancient roots in the Gelasian Sacramentary for the 7th day in the Octave of Easter though the prayer was somewhat different (Deus, innocentiae restitutor et amator, dirige ad te tuorum corda famulorum, ut quos de infidelitatis tenebris liberasti, numquam a tuae veritatis luce discedant). The second half of today’s prayer comes from another prayer in the Gelasian, from vespers in the Octave of Pentecost (Deus, qui discipulis tuis spiritum sanctum paraclytum in ingis fervore tui amoris mittere dignatus es, da populis tuis in unitate fidei esse ferventes, ut in tua semper dilectione permanentes et in fide inveniantur stabilies et in opere efficaces).

Now you know the rest of the story…. as your eyeballs roll up into your head, drool trickles onto the keyboard… your head lolls back and snaps forward again.

“Fervor”, in English, is a a bit weak in conveying the impact of Latin fervor, “a boiling or raging heat, a violent heat, a raging, boiling, fermenting”. It stands for “ardor, passion”.

We are going to have to really think about concipio. This verb has many meanings. In English we have the same problem with “conceive”, which mean “become pregnant” or “perceive with the mind”. Concipio is in its most fundamental sense “to take or lay hold of, to take to one’s self, to take in, take, receive”. Logically there extends from this fundamental meaning a physical idea of fecundation and an intellectual or sensory idea of “to take or seize something by the sense of sight, to see, perceive” and “to comprehend intellectually, to take in, imagine, conceive, think”. Then we take another conceptual step (sorry, about that) to “to receive in one’s self, adopt, harbor any disposition of mind, emotion, passion, evil design, etc., to give place to, foster, to take in, receive; to commit”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O God, restorer and lover of innocence,
guide unto You the hearts of Your servants,
so that, once the ardor of Your Spirit has been taken in,
they may be found both to be steadfast in faith
and efficacious at work.

This prayer brings me to think of baptism and also the sacrament of penance.

In baptism, we are forgiven the original sin of which we are guilty by our being children of our first parents. When Adam and Eve sinned, the whole race sinned, but it just happens that the whole race was only two members. God restores us to a state of friendship with Him, of innocence, even though it is not the original innocence of the time before the fall. Baptism removes the stain of original sin and also of all the actual sins we have committed. The Holy Spirit makes His dwelling in our souls with the Father and the Son. In a sense the Holy Spirit is “conceived” in our souls, in the various senses of that word.

When we drive the indwelling Spirit from our souls through mortal sin, it can be restored to us through the sacrament of penance, when Christ Himself in the person of the priest, alter Christus, completely removes the sins from our soul, restoring us to God’s friendship.

There are may things in this changing and shifting world which can erode the steadfastness of a human heart. This world by its very nature is passing. If we give our hearts to these passing things, or set them in the place that belongs to the One who is eternal and ever faithful, we will be lost forever. When we are attached overly to the passing things of this world we cannot be effective in our work, in the vocation God conceived for us from before the creation of the universe.

NEW CORRECTED ICEL VERSION:
O God, who delight in innocence and restore it,
direct the hearts of your servants to yourself,
that, caught up in the fire of your Spirit,
we may be found steadfast in faith
and effective in works.

LAME-DUCK ICEL:
God of love, [You must be joking.  Really?]
bring us back to you.
Send your Spirit to make us strong in faith,
and active in good works.

You decide.

Posted in LENT | Tagged
15 Comments

Friday Lenten Penance on 25 March – Annunciation

Posted on 24 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Those who are bound by the law are to do penance on Fridays of Lent.

However, tomorrow, Friday is 25 March, the Solemnity (in the post-Conciliar calendar) of the Annunciation.

Please attend to can. 1251.

Can.  1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

For those who don’t like the Novus Ordo… your likes or dislikes make not the slightest difference.  If you are a subject of the Latin Church, the 1983 Code pertains to you.  Since in the Ordinary Form the Feast of the Annunciation has the rank of a Solemnity, and since can. 1251 applies to you, you are not bound to your Friday penance.

Of course you can do as you please.  Do penance if you choose.  You are not bound to it.

In these cases of great feasts during Lent, I generally suggest that people keep their festivities somewhat muted.  But the Solemnity is a true Feast Day.

Be penitentially festive, festively penitent.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes | Tagged , , ,
46 Comments

About the upcoming Instruction on Summorum Pontificum

Posted on 24 March 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There was a great deal of anxiety poured out by traditionalists over reports that an upcoming Instruction on Summorum Pontificum might erode Pope Benedict’s own provisions.  I was skeptical about that and cautioned calm and  the action of prayer for the Holy Father and confusion to the Holy Father’s enemies.

In any event, I am sure that a lot of people prayed and still pray about this.

The generally fair-minded and nearly ubiquitous John L. Allen, sadly still writing for dissenter’s central National Catholic Fishwrap has a piece about the upcoming Instruction together with some less interesting comments about the discussions betwixt the SSPX and a team appointed by the Holy See.

The bit about the discussions doesn’t say too much we don’t know: Sun rises in East… Discussions are hard going.

Regarding the Instruction, however, Mr. Allen wrote:

Speaking on background, Vatican officials insist that’s not the case [That the Instruction will actually undermine Summorum Pontificum.].

Instead, they say, the instruction will confirm that the moto proprio is now the universal law of the church, and insist that bishops apply it. Among other things, it will call for seminarians to be trained not just in Latin, but in the older rite itself, at least so they will know how to execute it faithfully and understand what’s being said.

The instruction will also confirm that the older Mass must be available wherever “groups of faithful” request it, without specifying how many people it takes to constitute a “group.”

The instruction will likewise confirm that the older liturgy is to be celebrated during Holy Week wherever there’s a “stable group” of faithful attached to it, as well as in religious orders which use the extraordinary rite.  [But apparently not for the Ambrosian Rite priests… which is puzzling.]

On the other hand, the instruction will probably not satisfy all traditionalist hopes. For example, it will probably not give a seminarian in a regular diocesan seminary the right to be ordained according to the pre-Vatican II ritual, in part [Attention…] because that ritual presumes ordination to “minor orders” and the sub-diaconate, which were suppressed under Pope Paul VI.

I had not thought of that last point, about minor orders, as the reason to withhold freedom from bishops to use the older Pontifical Romanum to ordain as it pleaseth to ordain.

The answer about withholding the older Pontificale was based on commonsense: Seminarians would all, or 99% of them, opt for the older Rite of ordination.  This doesn’t cast doubt on the validity of the newer rite.  But given a choice, only the rare seminarian today would choose to be ordained with the newer rite for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who knows the difference between the two forms.

But Mr. Allen’s comment touches on another, though related, issue.  I have long thought about the conundrum posed about the conferring of minor orders in traditional groups such as the FSSP, though not in this matter of the use of the Pontificale by residential bishops or their delegates.

My basic questions revolve around this two-fold aporia:

QUAERITUR: If there are no minor orders anymore, then why does the Holy See allow groups to pretend there are and go through fake ceremonies?

QUAERITUR: If there are still minor orders, then why can’t they be extended to all seminarians?

Posted in Linking Back, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill | Tagged , ,
41 Comments