Card. Müller advises Bp. Strickland of Tyler NOT to resign.

Posted on 21 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At kath.net, the German site, there is a story that Card. Müller, former Prefect of the CDF and once Bishop of Regensburg, advises Bp. Strickland of Tyler NOT to resign.

Excerpt:

According to Catholic teaching, the Pope is by no means the Lord of the Church, but only as Christ’s representative for the universal Church, the first servant of his Lord, who had to say to Simon Peter, who had just been destined to become the rock of the Church: “Get behind me (Italian Indietro, the true indietrismo) [backwardism], because you have in mind not what God wants, but what people want” (Mt 16:23).

The Pope has no authority from Christ to bully and intimidate good bishops, modeled on Christ the Good Shepherd, who sanctify, teach and lead the flock of God in the name of Christ in accordance with the episcopal ideal of Vatican II, just because they are false friends denounce these good bishops to Francis as enemies of the Pope, while heretical and immoral bishops can do whatever they want or who harass the Church of Christ every day with some other stupidity.

Der Papst ist gemäß der katholischen Lehre keineswegs der Herr der Kirche, sondern nur als Stellvertreter Christi für die universale Kirche der erste Diener seines Herrn, der dem gerade zum Felsen der Kirche bestimmten Simon Petrus sagen musste: „Geh hinter mich (ital. Indietro, dem wahren Indietrismo), denn du hast nicht das im Sinn, was Gott will, sondern was die Menschen wollen.“ (Mt 16, 23).

Der Papst hat keine Vollmacht von Christus, gute Bischöfe nach dem Vorbild Christi, des guten Hirten, die im Einklang mit dem Bischofsideal des II. Vatikanums die Herde Gottes im Namen Christi heiligen, lehren und leiten, zu drangsalieren und einzuschüchtern, nur weil falsche Freunde diese guten Bischöfe bei Franziskus als Feinde des Papstes denunzieren, während häretische und unmoralische Bischöfe treiben können, was sie wollen, oder die jeden Tag die Kirche Christi mit einer andern Dummheit belästigen.
Der Papst ist gemäß der katholischen Lehre keineswegs der Herr der Kirche, sondern nur als Stellvertreter Christi für die universale Kirche der erste Diener seines Herrn, der dem gerade zum Felsen der Kirche bestimmten Simon Petrus sagen musste: „Geh hinter mich (ital. Indietro, dem wahren Indietrismo), denn du hast nicht das im Sinn, was Gott will, sondern was die Menschen wollen.“ (Mt 16, 23).

Der Papst hat keine Vollmacht von Christus, gute Bischöfe nach dem Vorbild Christi, des guten Hirten, die im Einklang mit dem Bischofsideal des II. Vatikanums die Herde Gottes im Namen Christi heiligen, lehren und leiten, zu drangsalieren und einzuschüchtern, nur weil falsche Freunde diese guten Bischöfe bei Franziskus als Feinde des Papstes denunzieren, während häretische und unmoralische Bischöfe treiben können, was sie wollen, oder die jeden Tag die Kirche Christi mit einer andern Dummheit belästigen.

Posted in The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged ,
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Concerning Tolkien

Posted on 21 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Tomorrow is, of course, the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo.  Today, however, is the birthday of The Hobbit.

I saw a video bit the other day in which we learned that there are hundreds of hours of scenes cut from the Jackson LotR. The mind reels.

More somewhat discouraging news at Variety. It includes this soul anihilating, weale-word studded paragraph:

“Following our recent acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, we’re thrilled to embark on this new collaborative journey with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, bringing the incomparable world of J.R.R. Tolkien back to the big screen in new and exciting ways,” said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode. “We understand how cherished these works are and working together with our partners at New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, we plan to honor the past, look to the future, and adhere to the strongest level of quality and production values.”

Kyrie eleison.

I am reminded of a recent smarmy email from Delta which described the revamping of the rewards program and access to lounges, etc. In effect, it will be super-hard, unless you are flying on the company dime, to advance in the program and use the clubs… BUT… it’s all “This is so wonderful! You’ll love it!”

As SkyMiles Membership continues to grow, we are committed to preserving the exclusivity and experience you anticipate and deserve. We have heard your feedback about the complexity of the SkyMiles Program and for the first time since 2015, we are making changes to simplify the way you qualify for Medallion Status while also rewarding you with more ways to earn Status.

[…]

We are dedicated to earning and maintaining your trust with every choice we make. We genuinely hope our commitment to a simplified program with more opportunities to earn Status will enhance your unique Member experience.

Insulting.

Dear readers, if you have not read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, please do. Then The Silmarillion awaits.

If possible… read the books before seeing the movies.  For the love of all that is good true and beautiful.

UPDATE:

Perhaps Delta will adopt this plan in the spirit of “special reward fares for one way trips to Minas Tirith”.

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged
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Daily Rome Shot 800

Posted on 21 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Meanwhile, white to move.

 

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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In chessy news, in Berlin, Wesley beat Nordirbek to emerge from the lower bracket to the final against Jan-Krzysztof Duda.  Duda won, garnering €80K.  This tournament was pretty kitchy in its coverage, but it was, I understand, broadcast live on TV in some places. I used YouTube to see it at a convenient time.  Wesley So secured €20K for 2nd.  The event shows that short-time format chess is on the rise.  A sign of the time.

Tomorrow, 22 Sept – the Birthday of Bilbo and Frodo – Nakamura v. Carlsen in the Speedchess Championship.

And…

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September Ember Days

Posted on 20 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

With the arrival of mid-September, and the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 Sept) we come around again to our Ember Days.  The September Ember Days this year are today, Wednesday 20 Sept, Friday 22 and Saturday 23.

More on Ember Days, HERE.

Observance of Ember Days is very ancient, going back in the Roman Church to at least Gelasius I (496) who speaks of four times a year.  Leo the Great (+461) preached about three times.   Pope Callixtus I (+222) laid down fasting laws.  The Ember Days correspond, roughly, to changes of seasons.

Keep in mind that Ember Days were times of penance.  Perhaps you could fast and abstain for some good intention on these days.

If memory serves, the newer Ordo – for the Novus Ordo – mentions something about the custom of Ember Days, but it does so in such a vague way that no one might be prompted to do anything with it.

I wonder: is there still a mention of Ember Days in the Ordo for the Ordinary Form?   Perhaps some priests out there who have one could check.

Fun fact.

In the 16th c. Spanish and Portuguese missionaries settled in Nagasaki, Japan.  From their interest in inculturation and out of sensitivity for the ways of the people, they tried to make meatless meals for Embertide, which is a fast time.  They started deep-frying shrimp.  The Japanese ran with and developed it to perfection.  This is “tempura,” again from the Latin term for the Ember Days” Quatuor Tempora“.

I think I’ll get some tempura on Friday.

In the meantime, do you know the mnemonic for the times of year of the Ember Days?

The old rhyme is:

Dat crux Lucia cineres charismata dia
quod sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.

Or

Fasting days and Emberings be
Lent, Whitsun, Holyrood, and Lucie.

A short version: Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 |
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Daily Rome Shot 799

Posted on 20 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Photo by The Great Roman™

Meanwhile, white to move and mate in two.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

In Berlin yesteday for the kitchy but lucrative “Armageddon” blitz, Wesley So defeated Richard Rapport and must now face Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The winner plays Duda for €80,000!

Use FATHERZ10 at checkout

Meanwhile, I watched a podcast yesterday Fabi, Christian and Yassir and learned about Chessify.

This is really interesting. Instead of getting ever stronger computers to handle chess databases and analysis, you can use a cloud based super-computer. You “rent” time on it. It can do things that our home computers couldn’t dream of… not that our home computers… at least I hope not. I’m not sure what my computer is doing when I’m away.

Anyway, Chessify gives access to the best engines and tablebase. There is a free level that analyzes at 1,000 kN/s speed. Paid, up to 1 BN/s. Not sure exactly what that is or how it might translate into actual language. One billion N per second where N is… “nodes”. Okay… HERE…

A node, … is a chess position with its evaluation and history, i.e. castling rights, repetition of moves, move turn, etc. Once you make a move, the engine starts calculating various continuations in search of the best move. This process can be described as a decision tree with its root being the current position. Every legal move creates a new position, known as a child node, and each of those child nodes, in turn, grows into more branches with every legal move.

FWIW… after White’s first move the number of possible positions is 20 (16 pawn moves, 4 knight moves). After 2 moves: 400 distinct chess positions. After 3 moves: 5,362 distinct chess positions or 8,902 total positions after three moves (White’s second move). You see where this is going. After 7 moves: 3,284,294,545.

The total number of chess positions is called the Shannon number, which is 10120,.

That’s a lot of nodes. Anyway,

Stockfish working on 4 CPUs of an average local computer considers around 5,000k nodes per second, which is insufficient for in-depth analysis. A local high-end computer, on the other hand, can support up to 20,000 kN/s; and a special pay-top-dollar local server, which may be owned by some super GMs only, will provide around 50,000kN/s. Higher speeds are possible to reach only with cloud servers: from 100,000 to 1 million kN/s and even higher if needed.

When I turn on Stockfish to analyze something, immediately the cooling fan revs up.  I really need a new computer.

Fun facts.

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Card. Sarah wrote about Joseph Ratzinger and Sacred Liturgy… has the article been “cancelled”?

Posted on 20 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day we read at NLM that His Eminence Robert Card. Sarah (former Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments) published a piece at the journal of Communio.   Communio (Ratzinger, Bouyer, de Lubac) is/was the journal, after its split with Consilium that countered Consilium (Congar, Küng, Rahner, Schillebeeckx, “Spirit of Vatican II”, etc.).

Card. Sarah’s piece was called: “The Inexhaustible Reality: Joseph Ratzinger and the Sacred Liturgy” (vol. 49, Winter 2022). NLM quotes a few pages.

Card. Sarah’s whole piece, once available in PDF form, has been removed from the site of Communio.

Cancelled?

Not quite: it is still HERE.

Perhaps it is merely a technical glitch.

Posted in Benedict XVI, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Save The Liturgy - Save The World | Tagged
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The Synod on Synodality (“walking together on walking togetherity”) tackles the problem of its own CO2 emissions

Posted on 20 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the Italian site La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, not The Babylon Bee. My emphases:

The letter kills, the Spirit vivifies and the Synod pollutes

Over 300 members who will travel, talk, and in short emit Co2. In view of the meeting, the General Secretariat takes action by self-imposing a green penance.

The commitment to safeguard Creation of the XVI ordinary general assembly of the Synod of Bishops: this is the title of a short statement just issued by the General Secretariat of the Synod in view of the assembly which will open on 4 October at the same time as the announced publication of Laudato yes 2.0.

In short: such a crowded Synod will have a fair environmental impact (and not only) but «the General Secretariat of the Synod intends to make its contribution to the protection of creation through a form of compensation for the residual CO2 emissions produced by the next XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops“. Well, of course: the members of the assembly have to travel from all over the world to reach the city, not to mention the huge emissions linked to logistics. If the synod fathers (or synod mothers, synod brothers and sisters) were to get excited in the debate, try to imagine the Co2 produced by over 300 mouths.

You can’t preach ecological conversion and then do badly, they must have thought. Hence a sort of green penance: «part of the residual CO2 emissions will be offset thanks to projects capable of generating a carbon “credit” capable of balancing the accumulated “debt”. «The identified project, carried out in Nigeria and Kenya, aims to spread efficient kitchen stoves and water purification technologies for families, communities and institutions». The old works of charity done for the love of God and neighbor are obsolete for a hierarchy so taken by the environmental issue as to replace the old sin/grace, fall/redemption dichotomy, with “carbon debt/carbon credit”. To find someone to take care of Christians (an endangered species), should we perhaps turn to the WWF? Some will object that we are anchored to the letter, closed to the Spirit who blows where he wants. The letter kills, the Spirit vivifies, but it is equally certain that the Synod pollutes.

Once Stalin asked himself: “How many divisions does the Pope have?”, today the question must be reformulated, replacing “divisions” with “issues”. There would be a definitive solution, free and with zero environmental impact: no Synod. It pollutes the environment, with almost no benefits for souls.

How many carbon debts and credits to you have?

Meanwhile, if the members of the Synod (“walking together”) are determined to meet anyway, and thus endanger the planet, there are a few restaurants they should avoid and a few menu items.

Posted in Lighter fare, Synod, What are they REALLY saying? | Tagged ,
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Daily Rome Shot 798

Posted on 19 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Black to move and win.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.  US HERE – UK HERE

The Benedictine in Norcia make great beer. I’ll bet your parish priest might like to have some.

If you want a meal that’s sort of awful but not completely, this is your place in the via S. Paolo alla Regola.

Wesley So (defeated Humpy) and Richard Rapport (defeated Gukesh) must duke it out in the lower bracket of the Armageddon Finale.  Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Jan-Krzysztof Duda will face off in the upper bracket.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
7 Comments

Daily Rome Shot 797

Posted on 18 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Meanwhile, white to move and win.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Use FATHERZ10 at checkout

Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.  US HERE – UK HERE

In Berlin the Grand Finale of the Armageddon Series is taking place on September 14-20 at the World Chess Club.  On Day 5, Wesley So (yay!), who had lost in the upper bracket and therefore dropped to the lower, defeated Sam Shankland.  Wesley will face Humpy Koneru who had defeated Nodirbek, even in the upper as Richard Rapport will face Gukesh D.    This is interesting because women and men are mixed in the brackets, thus responding to something I’ve wondered: how will women do against the male super GMs.   The video coverage and setting is pretty cheesy and high tech and, frankly, annoying.  One of the gimmicky elements is that you can see the heart rates of the players.

Also, for you historians, Chessbase is running a series of articles about 1993, when TWO World Championship matches were played, one sponsored by FIDE between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman in the Netherlands and the other by the wildcat Professional Chess Association (PCA – members – 2) between reigning World Champ Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short in London at the Savoy Theatre.  In the FIDE match, during the opening ceremonies on 4 Sept, the big banner over the stage caught on fire, causing energetic reactions.  Kasparov v. Short, the first match between a Russian champ and a non-Russian challenger since Spassky v. Fischer started on 7 Sept.     The press center in London was at the legendary 19th chess epicenter Simpson’s-in-the-Strand.  I wrote about it HERE.

Kasparov and Short broke with FIDE and formed the PCA six months before, mostly because FIDE venues couldn’t raise the prize money.  Eventually the London Times stepped up and offered £1.7 million.   This match had its own pyrotechnics: a bomb scare.

Kasparov pretty much wiped out Short, who nevertheless got 3/8 of the prize money, £65K.

The matches were played with analog clocks, since there weren’t digital clocks yet.

In other news, 20 years ago on 8 Sept there started the Russia v Rest of the World match in Moscow.  One of the games featured Judith Polgar v. Kasparov.  Judith won.

On the theme of anniversaries, I was with a priest friend last night and we reviewed (not fully) the three PODCAzTs I did back in 2009 for the 40th anniversary of the Novus Ordo.  Paul VI gave three General Audience talks about the changes that would be implemented beginning on the 1st Sunday of Advent in 1969.  In the PODCAzTs I give some context, what was going on in the world, what songs were popular, etc.   If analog clock were still in use in 1993 for chess, in 1969 when the Novus Ordo started, Apollo 12 was just on the Moon and the first 747 was used.

 

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 16th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 24th) 2023 – 3rd Sunday in the “Season of Creation”

Posted on 17 September 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Share the good stuff.

It’s the 16th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo and the 24th Sunday of the Novus Ordo.

Elsewhere today I wrote about my discovery that today is the 3rd Sunday in the Season of Creation.  HERE  Did you get any of that in your parish today?

More importantly, was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass. I hear that it is growing. Of COURSE.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

I have some thoughts about the Sunday Epistle reading posted at One Peter Five.

A taste:

[W]hen Paul launches into this section of his missive to the denizens and Ephesus and beyond, what does he do?  He provides the context for his communication, his suffering imprisonment.  Then he “kneels down” and prays for his readers.  He frames the entire discourse in fervent prayer, not just for strangers whom he knows of in theory, but as loved ones whom he knows of like family.    It’s not just about how much you know.  It’s everything about your unity with and openness to God’s will.  It’s about your full, conscious, and active receptivity to all God wants to give you.

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