The Magisterium of Nuns now inspires proponents of unnatural “marriage”

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the debate about Obamacare, many catholic women religious failed in their Catholic identity test.  They rather chose to give cover to catholic pro-abortion democrats in Congress so that they could salve the consciences and vote in favor of legislation that would fund abortion.  All this despite the admonishment and warning of the Catholic bishops of the United States.

These women religious set themselves up as an alternate, parallel “magisterium” over and against that of the bishops’ authority to teach.   This is their Magisterium of Nuns.

FishwrapThe National Catholic Fishwrap has chosen to underscore one of their favorite topics by running a story provided by the Religion News Service.

The story, by Daniel Burke, is entitled “Catholics face ‘mutiny’ over teachings on gay marriage“.

I will spare you the details of the article which you can read on your own.

But this is the salient part.

After describing initiatives to defend the true nature of marriage, for example, Archbp. Nienstedt’s good project to send 400,000 DVDs to Catholics in Minnesota, we read:

Catholic gay-rights supporters have been emboldened by the example of nuns who bucked the bishops by supporting the health-care overhaul Congress passed last March, said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, one of the groups involved in Equally Blessed.

“People are using that as a touchstone,” he said. “They see that the nuns were courageous and they feel like they can be courageous. Courage is contagious.”

The abortion issue is now feeding into the unnatural “marriage” issue.  Are we surprised?  Really?

If the Catholic bishops in the United States needed a little reminder about how many of the communities of women religious are not on the same page, look no further.

To any bishops reading: There is no common ground with the women religious who are trying to undermine your authority.  Dialogue serves the purposes of the left.  They are at war with you.

The Magisterium of Nuns does not teach for the Church.  Our bishops teach for the Church.

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Linking Back, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , ,
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REVIEW: Vatican’s new 1962 Missale Romanum

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

You may have heard that the Vatican Press published their own version of the editio typica 1962 Missale Romanum.  We knew about this, of course, but now I said Mass with it this weekend.

Through  paxbooks $334.

Every parish, every priest, every seminarian, every school and convent chapel needs a 1962 Missale Romanum.

Here are a few shots so you can see what it is like.

1962 Missale Romanum

This is an altar missal, in beautiful red leather.

1962 Missale Romanum

The cover is reinforced.

1962 Missale Romanum

1962 Missale Romanum

The paper is heavy and textured.

1962 Missale Romanum

1962 Missale Romanum

Ribbons.

1962 Missale Romanum

1962 Missale Romanum

The Canon.

1962 Missale Romanum

St. Joseph.

1962 Missale Romanum

This is important for a celebrant: the text is arranged well so that the page turns come at convenient moments.

1962 Missale Romanum

It is an attractive book.

1962 Missale Romanum

1962 Missale Romanum

Title page.

1962 Missale Romanum

1962 Missale Romanum

Bottom line: I want one.

Posted in Brick by Brick, REVIEWS, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM |
28 Comments

Have a Placid day!

Posted on 5 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today in the traditional Roman calendar it is the feast of the 3rd c. Sicilian martyrs St. Placid and companions, slain during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian.

Today in the revised calendar is the feast of Sts. Placid and Maurus, companions of St. Benedict in the 6th c.

The saints are sometimes confused and both have their feast on 5 October.

Here is the Vatican Curia’s calendar.

calendar

calednar

Here is the entry in the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum.

5. Commemoratio sancti Placidi, monachi, qui inde a pueritia carissimus fuit discipulus sancti Benedicti.

Here is the entry in the1878 Martyrologium Romanum.

Messanae in Sicilia natalis sanctorum Martyrum Placidi Monachi, discipuli beati Benedicti Abbatis, et fratrum eius Eutychii et Victorini, ac Flaviae Virginis eorum sororis; item Donati Firmati Diaconi, Faisti, aliorumque trignita Monachorum, qui a Manucha pirata pro Christi fide necati sunt.

I have always had an interest in St. Placid, the Benedictine of the 6th c., because of a book I found during a retreat when I was in seminary.  The book is called La vie de petit st Placid… The Life of Little St. Placid by Mother Geneviève Gallois. I have it in French and in English.

Little St. Placid

A sister name Placida came to Mother Geneviève and asked her to draw her a picture.  Mother drew 104 and thus the book was born.  It is a work of deep spiritual value and nearly painful charm.

Little St. Placid

Mother Genevieve, who had come from an extremely anti-clerical background, was a talented painter.  She had bad health and a hard time when at 23 she entered the convent of the Les Bénédictines de la rue Monsieur (20 rue Monsieur in the 7e arrondissement).  She wound up being a novice for 22 year, in fact.

Here is one of her paintings.

Le feu - plus je tape, plus il pétille

A couple more images from the book.

Little St. Placid

About Mass.  Click to enlarge.

Little St. Placid

Here

Posted in Just Too Cool, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged ,
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DETROIT 17 Oct – Assumption Grotto – Solemn TLM – Mass of Igor Stravinsky

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On Sunday 17 Oct at 12 Noon at Assumption Grotto parish in Detroit there will be a Solemn TLM (Extraordinary Form).  The setting of the Mass is by Igor Stravinsky.   The undersigned will be celebrant for the Mass.

Assumption Grotto’s annual benefit dinner is on the same day after the Mass.  See their site for details.

I am really looking forward to hearing the Stravinsky Mass!  Additional music for the Mass will be by J.S. Bach.   That’s not a contrast, is it?

During one of my previous visits to Assumption Grotto, the pastor, Fr. Perrone, spoke about the Stravinsky and astonished me by what he told me about it.  I had never heard it before and didn’t know that Stravinsky had written a Mass.

He was Orthodox, of course, but he wrote his Mass setting from real piety and not for a commission.  Here is a bit of text about the Mass, just to get your head around what he was doing.

So, why did Stravinsky, in 1944, begin work on a liturgical musical form which was alien to his own religious tradition? The answer may be found in his Expositions, where he recounts finding some Masses by Mozart in a second-hand shop in Los Angeles in 1942. He wrote: ‘As I played through these rococo-operatic sweets-of-sin, I knew I had to write a Mass of my own, but a real one‘. By ‘real one’ he may have meant a Roman Catholic one that would allow the use of instruments – Stravinsky wrote that he could ‘…endure unaccompanied singing in only the most harmoniously primitive music’. Like Howells, he eschewed the decorative style and set out to write a work which would be ‘…very cold music, absolutely cold, that will appeal directly to the spirit’. In a conversation with Evelyn Waugh, Stravinsky noted: ‘My Mass was not composed for concert performances but for use in the church. It is liturgical and almost without ornament. In making a musical setting of the Credo, I wished only to preserve the text in a special way. One composes a march to facilitate marching men, so with my Credo I hope to provide an aid to the text. The Credo is the longest movement. There is much to believe’.  (source)

I look forward to this occasion at Assumption Grotto.

I urge any of you readers in the area to come and participate!  Put it on your calendar.

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged , ,
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Madison, WI: Society of Jesus Christ the Priest

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have in the past written about a group of priests in Wisconsin, in the Diocese of Madison, called the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest.   His Excellency Most. Rev. Robert Morlino has entrusted several parishes to these priests around the area of Sauk City.  Some background:

I am staying with them over the weekend at their rectory in Sauk City.  This seems to be a healthy group of hard working men.  The people here are lucky to have them.

My reason for the trip to Madison was to support a Gregorian chant workshop sponsored by the Diocese.  How many times have you seen Gregorian chant workshops sponsored by a diocese?

Another reason I went is because an old friend, and colleague of a mentor the late Msgr. Schuler directed the workshop.

Here is Fr. Skeris in action.

Madison

The man who made this happen is Bp. Robert Morlino, who has been a stand up guy in defense of life and of good liturgy.

Madison

Note the Benedictine arrangement of the altar at the Diocese Center/Chancery.

Madison

To my mind, an iconic image in the lobby of the chancery says something about what Bishop Morlino is facing.

Perhaps you had heard that a few years ago the Cathedral of Madison burned down.  Bp. Morlino told me that no one would let him into the wreckage to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament.  The Bishop found some Catholic firefighters who rescued the Lord from the ruins.  It was enshrined in painting.

Madison

Here is a detail.   One carries the ciborium, another the lunette.

Madison

Here is one of the photos of the moment which the bishop sent.  It is a slightly different angle, but the firefighter in the center has the lunette.

firefighters

It seems to me that the image of lay people, indeed a type of warrior/guardian helping the main priest in an effort to rescue the Blessed Sacrament, the source and summit of our Catholic identity, from a burning ruin is a way of understanding what Bp. Morlino is facing in his mandate as Bishop of Madison, arguably one of the most liberal regions in the USA.

I got a sense of the spirit of the community of priests who have the HQ in Sauk City, about 30 minutes away from Madison.  These are happy and hard working guys with a whole cluster of churches to mind.  Also, they are taking care of each other as well.  One of their group has been suffering terribly from leukemia and everyone is on deck.  They are prayerful, charitable, with great humor, theologically and liturgically sound.

Also, they have great taste in coffee mugs!

Madison

This happy pyramid was stacked up for the sake of the evening’s supper.  Fr. Skeris from the workshop was to come along with the Bishop and the Vicar General Msgr. Bartylla.

The main feature of the supper was paella.  One of the priests did most of the cooking in their communities mother house in Spain.  I was glad to roll up my sleeves and help with some of the prep.

Here is Fr. Del Priore adding some wine to the paella.  Note that they don’t have a stove in their main kitchen!

Madison

Ingredients from Spain, even from their own olive trees!

Madison

Madison

Madison

On Sunday morning it was off to nearby Roxbury for me, and Mass (Extraordinary Form) at St. Norbert’s.   This is a beautiful church, although there were some unfortunate wreckovations of the sanctuary.  I understand that everything removed was saved!

Madison

Can you believe the previous pastor would have set up an iron-board altar in front of this?

Here is a perfect example of why, even if you advocate Mass “facing the people” setting something up in front of an altar like this is a bad idea.

Madison

Madison

St. Norbert’s is a pretty as a postcard setting and church.  This was founded in a very German Catholic area.

The people I met there was happy and delighted to have the priests of the Society.

Madison

Across the street from the parish is a German restaurant!  With a Bavarian flag flying!

Madison

And so it was time to leave… which I did with regret.

I hope to be able to visit them all again and I congratulate Bp. Morlino for the successful workshop and the choice to have these priests in the diocese in support of his heavy mandate in a difficult diocese.

Madison

Posted in Brick by Brick, On the road | Tagged ,
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The Feeder Feed: New old arrival!

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

TwitterThe seasons come and go.  You can watch the shift in the constellations in the sky, the length of nights against the length of days, the changing of the leaves.  The ancient Romans had special priests who watched the flights of the birds to understand the favor of the gods.

A few days ago, I looked out and saw a familiar bird I haven’t seen for a while.

Here is  Junco hyemalis hyemalis the Slate-colored Junco.

Junco

They like to peck around on the ground and they will winter here, having come from Northern Canada.

And here is Nuthatch Triumphans!

Nuthatch

There is, by the way, a bird feed sale going on right now at the place I usually go.   I’m just sayin’….

Posted in I'm just askin'..., The Feeder Feed | Tagged
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DVD of the Pontifical Mass in Washington DC

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At long last there is a DVD available of the Pontifical Mass for the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s election  celebrated in Washington D.C.’s Shrine of the Immaculate Conception!

Here is the website.  You can preview the DVD.

[wp_youtube]VaydRX5y0vk[/wp_youtube]

You might remember Bp. Slattery’s fantastic sermon.

Posted in Brick by Brick, The Campus Telephone Pole |
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Detroit’s Archbp. Vigneron stands up! POLL ALERT on STEM CELLS!

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This comes from Freep… Detriot Free Press. NB: POLL ALERT!  There’s a poll in the right-hand column of that article, asking whether you favor or oppose embryonic stem cell research.

My emphases:

Even in petri dish, life merits protection

Archbp. VigneronI started out as an embryo. So did you and everyone else who shares this planet with us. And there is great significance to this irrefutable fact beyond the shared experience.

Time magazine’s cover story this week about the influence of life in the womb states the case: “We are the way we are because it’s in our genes: the DNA we inherited at conception.” Yes, upbringing and environment have a huge impact on our lives, but one thing never changes until our last natural breath: our DNA. Each human embryo is unique — it does not have the same DNA of the mother or father. That cell not only becomes us, it is us.

This reality is critical context as the World Stem Cell Summit meets in Detroit. Progress in research on umbilical cord blood cells and adult stem cells is to be saluted and supported. Patients and advocates alike can look to the growing number of cures and treatments discovered through research that does not destroy the living human embryo. Conversely, experiments on human embryonic stem cells deserve our scrutiny and scorn. If not us, who will speak for our fellow citizens-to-be?

We are blessed to live in a country with some of the most extraordinary founding documents in history. If, indeed, we believe we were “created equal,” doesn’t that belief extend to the indefensible living embryo in a petri dish? “Unalienable rights” means they can’t be taken away by the state.

Doesn’t that apply to science as well? And what of “life” in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? First, it must begin.

Embryonic stem cell researchers will attest that it is imperative to preserve an embryo because it is a living cell. It is after the living embryo is preserved with its human DNA signature that it is dissected, cloned, destroyed or discarded. True democracy is built on life, not death.

Ours is not the first country or culture to selectively pursue a moral calculus that justifies taking a life to enable scientific experiments. We know from sad experience that dangers follow when we put human hands on the switch of life and death.

Embryos are the genesis of human life, and it is morally unacceptable to intentionally destroy them, even if the scientist is trying to cure a debilitating disease or parents are responding to a difficult challenge in their family life. The country we live in defends human rights at home and abroad. That defense must extend to the laboratory.

In Michigan’s Compiled Laws, the fetal protection act is precise on punishing individuals who harm or kill a fetus — or embryo! — during an intentional assault.

How can there be such a disconnect with what happens in an assault case and what occurs in a laboratory when a human life is destroyed? The person who harmed an embryo in an assault is charged with a felony. The person who destroys an embryo in a petri dish is held harmless and likely considered some sort of medical pioneer. Yet the results were the same: two fewer people in the world who had no power to stop what was happening to them and had no voice in their demise.

The question is called.

Allen Vigneron is the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.

There is a poll:

POLL

I voted “NO.  It is morally unacceptable.”

Right now…

POLL

UPDATE 2107 GMT:

poll

UPDATE 2243 GMT:

poll

UPDATE 5 Oct 1212 GMT:

poll

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, POLLS, The future and our choices | Tagged , ,
18 Comments

St. Francis about priests

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From The Testament of St. Francis:

“…the Lord gave me, and gives me still, such faith in priests who live according to the rite of the holy Roman Church because of their orders that, were they to persecute me, I would still want to have recourse to them…..And I act in this way because, in this world, I see nothing physically of the most high Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood which they receive and they alone administer to others. I want to have these most holy mysteries honoured and venerated above all things and I want to reserve them in precious places.”

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged
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Priest fired for porn may have protected Seal of Confession

Posted on 4 October 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Remember the movie I Confess?  A priest’s nightmare.  A murder confesses to a priest and then frames the priest with the murder.

I saw this on Catholic World News:

A priest who was fired from his teaching post at a Pennsylvania Catholic college and suspended from ministry may have been protecting the seal of confession, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Father Mark Gruber was dismissed last year by St. Vincent College after pornography was found on his computer. But a young man has now told police that he downloaded pornography onto the priest’s computer and later confessed to Father Gruber. The young man argues that the priest accepted responsibility for the pornography in order to protect the integrity of the confessional seal.

Father Gruber—who has sued St. Vincent College for defamation—never directly denied using pornography, school officials have noted. An attorney for the college points out that the priest could still bear responsibility for some of the images on his computer.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

  • Priest fired for porn may have protected confession (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
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