Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

Daily Rome Shot 521, etc. and…

Posted on 2 August 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I would really like to post photos from my recent journeys. I am on the road.

Which is in Rome?

It is white’s move. Go get ’em.

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.

US HERE – UK HERE

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Daily Rome Shot 520, etc.

Posted on 1 August 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please remember me when shopping Amazon online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE Tell your friends to use my links.

At least 68 Masses will be celebrated today for Blase Cupich, who has been so cruel to the Catholics of Chicago who desire the traditional rites. Please add fasting. That’s only way some things are accomplished, along with almsgiving.

Fifty years ago today, challenger Bobby Fischer and world champ Boris Spassky sat down at a disputed chess board in Reykjavík, Iceland. You might recall that Fischer had made a stink about the composition of the board (stone or wood) the size of the squares (2 1/2″ or 2 1/4″), etc. The Semi-Tarrasch Defense of the Queen’s Gambit Declined was on the board. The game ended in a 29 move draw, although Fischer had played an unusual move:

It looks like Fischer sac’d that pawn for a worse position, doesn’t it? I put the game into an engine and got this:

I’d like to sit down with some beer from the wonderful Benedictine monks at Norcia and work out Fischer’s thinking.

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3.5% of a group can bring the group down, turn it around, or take it over.

Posted on 31 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

3.5%

3.5% of a group can bring the group down, turn it around, or take it over. Alinsky knew this. Demographers know this. At 3%, groups gain significant influence.

Read HERE.

I was struck by something in the decree in the Diocese of Arlington.

They said openly that only 2.8% of Mass going Catholics go to the Vetus Ordo.

That got me thinking.

First, I wonder if that is true. They had/have the Vetus Ordo in 21 places, slashed to 8. Only 2.8? I’ll bet it is more. But they are somnambulant, not in the sense that they do nothing, but in the sense that they, like most conservatives, go about their lives, trying to live well, and just want to be left alone. Hobbits. Nothing wrong with Hobbits! They are so wonderful the Rangers die for them.

However, even Hobbit have to rise up.

I have been ranting for DECADES about how those who desire the traditional Catholic sacred worship have to step up and be recognized! They have to involved in the parish, not just drift in for Sunday. They have to be the first to get into the food drive or baby clothes collection. The FIRST. Not because we want to be seen, but because it is the right thing to do. If there is the secondary effect of being seen, great! Mostly, it builds unit cohesion, without which … we perish.

The American Revolution was fueled by 3%. The revolution in Georgia, 3.5%

I am sure there are people better versed in this than I, but this seems to be a real thing.

And if it is real before TC was issued, it is real now.

Am I wrong?

Posted in Be The Maquis, Cri de Coeur, Semper Paratus, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged 3%, Hobbits
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“Beautiful? The FAITHFUL paid for that. Because they WANTED it. And they trusted. They trusted.”

Posted on 31 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The cruel dictates of bishops and archbishops concerning the Vetus Ordo, now in these USA invoking the cover of “Rome said so”, have a …

… human face.

This is what our dear pastors don’t want to see.

Here is an example of the impact Wilton Gregory of Washington DC had on one community through his cruel decree.

From the blog of Fr. Kevin Cusick, who is well-known for columns in my old paper The Wanderer and other, comes a concrete instance of the collateral damage. To Father, and to all of the Vetus leaning out there who have had any sort of rocky way, I say, whatever may have been in the past we must now band together like never before.

Go HERE to the blog entry. If nothing other than a Memorare for him and these people, CLICK and shower their site with stats love to – at least – let you know you are there. Please? As a favor to me?

Southern Maryland parish forbidden to offer traditional Latin Mass after investing in quarter million dollar renovation and decoration for the purpose

Nightmare and heartbreak.

Parishioners of Saint Francis de Sales in Benedict, Maryland, devoted to the Church’s traditional worship, installed a new pine floor, painted altars and gradines, hung chandeliers and lamps, and painted a monumental mural. And more. After an extensive professional renovation and painting of the church’s entire 100-year-old plaster interior walls and ceiling.

All to give honor and glory to God for the salvation of souls through the most beautiful prayer of the traditional Latin Mass.

By means of draconian cruelty they have been officially forbidden to pray as they desire according to their Catholic patrimony in their own church. This compliments of the hierarchy that boasts of mercy, Synodality, compassion, seeking the margins, listening, accepting everyone, rejecting no one, diversity.

The parish offers a complete weekly schedule of traditional Masses with the exception of one novus ordo liturgy each Sunday so that no one feels excluded or marginalized.

Right click for larger.

Beautiful? The FAITHFUL paid for that. Because they WANTED it. And they trusted.

I suspect the faithful of that place will never contribute to another monetary thing that the Archdiocese begs for. Concrete works of mercy, sure. That’s trads. Concrete support for the maintenance of the Church, sure. That’s trads, who tend to be quite generous, in my experience.

We MUST have the Vetus Ordo, especially now, when the barque of the Church in these USA has experienced a nearly catastrophic damage to its propulsion system. In the dangerous waters of today’s secular monstrosities, we need to be able to navigate through through the rocks and rapids or we will perish.

I am reminded of the moment in the movie The African Queen when Humphrey Bogart explains that they have to get the propeller working because, in order to steer the boat through the dangerous rapids, they have to go faster than the current. I would add that the propeller simultaneously roots the boat in the past while giving us the option of where to go in our future.

The Vetus Ordo is not the past. It is the future.

Posted in Traditionis custodes | Tagged African Queen, Card. Gregory
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Invoking “Grandmother of the West”….? What is THAT all about?

Posted on 31 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

SERIOUS PREAMBLE

No demon has a real name. That’s part of their punishment. They really want a name and identity. Invocation of a false god or spirit allows demons to step up and be recognized, take the name and get to work.

Remember that forcing demons to reveal their name is part of the rite of exorcism.

Exorcists will wind up – by Christ’s power and authority – forcing demons to cough up their names like, “Ares” or something. Not that “Ares”, the Greek god, ever existed as a Greek god, but as a demon who got the name “Ares” because they invoked “Ares”.

Invoking spirits, powers, gods, etc. is to invoke a demon. Period. It is a grievous sin against the FIRST COMMANDMENT.

“But Father! But Father!”, some of you mewling softies and synchretists are objecting. “You are being judgmental about the sincere faiths of indigenous peoples whom Catholics oppressed with diseases and subjugation to a foreign culture. They have their wisdoms and we can embrace and learn from their sophisticated faith patterns and nature-sourced images of cosmic power flows… and … and… Vatican II says we have to do this, because it is the new lens through which everything in the past has to be reinterpreted. But you don’t get that and you are mean and disrespectful of their .. faiths, which are every bit as good as… as… YOU HATE VATICAN II!”

I respond, saying, Ps 95/96: 5: For all the gods of the peoples are idols.

It doesn’t make a difference of a people made up their sky gods and water gods or tree gods or lizard gods 3000 years ago or 30 years ago. It doesn’t make a difference if they left their faith expressions and invocations on cave walls or in stone carvings or on the pages of some 1990’s “new age” publisher. Invoke a spirit or power, especially with a name or a title (which, duh, is a name) and you have invoked a demon. Some demon now has a name and targets.

One exorcist told me, “they line up” for invocations in false religions, pagan ceremonies, etc. to GET an identity even if it is made up, like in Wicca. It doesn’t make any difference if it was something historic like Aztec stuff from a thousand years ago, or the wacko scribbling of a new age crank trying a make a few bucks off of the stupidly naïve.

HENCE: If you sit as a willing participant, witness, while some person – it makes zero difference if that person is sincere, a believer in some strain of spirituality – invokes the “Grandmother of the West”, you have just participated in the invocation of a demon.

It doesn’t make any difference if the title “Grandmother of the West” sounds sort of hokey. After all, couldn’t they have come up with a cooler name for the demon, like Cthulhu or Thqbnhj of Ykqxg Muncher of Souls? No, it could be that or, “Daisy the Flower Petal” spirit or “Bob’s unknown animal spirit guide”. Demons don’t have to have cool sounding names. What do they care? It’s a NAME. To invoke them, even in a fake new age thing 10 minutes old or an pagan ancient pagan cult from 1500 BC, it is a violation of the 1st Commandment if done in earnest.

I saw an image of cardinals and bishops, and another guy, in Canada do as instructed – put their hands on their hearts, the “seat” of who they are, symbolic place of the their love and identity, and watch and listen as a demon was invoked.

They didn’t this in Rome, with Pachamama.

They did this in Canada with the “Grandmother of the West”.

But by all means… crush the Vetus Ordo which includes, by the way, the Rite of Exorcism and all the effect constitutive blessings and sacramentals meant specifically to provide protection from demons.

Moreover, the pagan ritual involving the invocation of “the Grandmother of the West” was done so as to be admitted to the “circle of spirits”.

The circle of WHAT SPIRITS? And WHY?

Somewhere I saw a video, but I can’t find it. Anyone? [UPDATE: At Rorate there is a still photo, which is a capture from a video.]

This type of ceremony is either made up B as in B, S as in S, or it has some historic rooting in an indigenous belief.

So… I searched the interwebs and found this, pretty much right away, which is what any functionary of the pre-trip preparatory group could have found out when they looked over, ahead of time, what was going to be done.

Check this out HERE

A couple of screen shots from “Celebrate! Ceremonies and Blessings for Individuals, Families, and Spiritual Communities.” by an writer on … I don’t know what the hell it is, frankly. She writes about “Huna” which is a New Age thing from, I think, Hawaii. In other words it is a made up in 1945 and HERE. Think of the word “kahuna”. Once you start reading that wiki article, your skin should start to crawl and alarm bells will ring.

Yep. This was another way – wittingly or unwittingly – to invoke demons.

Screen shots from the “ceremony” book. Just a taste. But, Grandmother of the West is here.

It is cringeworthy, isn’t it.

Get a load of that crap. But, silly as it is, it is dangerous. Anyone invoking these “spirits”, made up yesterday, 30 years ago, or 3000 years ago, is invoking demons.

And all those prelates, cardinals, etc., Francis… sat there during that… thing they did.

It’s called idolatry and it is against the 1st Commandment of the Decalogue and it is very dangerous.

UPDATE:

Posted in Francis, The Drill | Tagged Grandmother of the West
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Daily Rome Shot 519, etc.

Posted on 31 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Meanwhile….

The Masses for Cupich Project, for the change of his heart about the ICK and TLM in Chicago is up to 60 Masses as I write.

White to move. Don’t get rooked.

Please remember me when shopping online. It hasn’t been a great month. Thanks in advance.

US HERE – UK HERE

FATHERZ10

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D. Arlington: more accompaniment for the faithful who desire the Vetus Ordo

Posted on 30 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Remember this?

2,800 Catholics Sign Traditional Latin Mass Petition Delivered to Arlington Bishop| National Catholic Register https://t.co/A8o5kmo7p4

— Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (@fatherz) February 8, 2022

Citing the absurd smoke-screen of “international assessment and consultation of bishops”, and the Dubious Dubia (which bind only the original questioners… but they were probably on the inside) and then local consultation, Bp. Burbidge of Arlington has slashed the number of locations where the Vetus Ordo is celebrated from 21 to 8. Parishes that have it, can have it for only two years.

This is, of course, all very pastoral.

One wonders what sort of pressure was applied from across the Potomac.

I refer the readership to this informal project. Perhaps add prayers begging for forgiveness for the narrow cruelty of some pastors of the Church.

ACTION ITEM! Be a “Custos Traditionis”! Join an association of prayer for the reversal of “Traditionis custodes”.

Posted in Traditionis custodes | Tagged Bp. Burbidge, Custos traditionis, D. Arlington, Traditionis custodes
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Francis: Grandmother of the West, invoked, to open the great circle and then blasts at “traditionalists”.

Posted on 30 July 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At The Catholic Thing there is a summary piece abooot Francis’ trip to Canadia. It starts:

“Well, that’s over.”

You can read it there. It paints a rather pathetic picture and darns with faint praise, the point being that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been and certain aspects were surprisingly mediocre.

There were the usual cringe moments, like with the head dress.

Not only.

From Le Monde:

At the request of Raymond Gros-Louis, an “elder” from the Huron-Wendat Nation, Pope Francis, his retinue of cardinals and bishops, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Governor General of Canada Mary Simon all placed a hand on their hearts for a welcoming ceremony. Then, in keeping with tradition, this First Nations representative lit a “sacred fire” to “connect” with the four directions and the “four life elements.” He blew a whistle and asked “the grandmother of the West for access to the great sacred circle.” Thus began Pope Francis’ meeting with Canadian authorities on Wednesday, July 27, at the Citadel of Quebec, on the third day of the visit by the Catholic Church’s leader to the country.

“The grandmother of the West”? “Great circle”?

Then, in the inevitable airplane presser, he said something strange things (surprise) about changes of doctrine and tradition. Responding to an RNS (lib) question about changing the Church’s teaching about contraceptives, he danced a bit:

But know that dogma, morality, is always in a path of development, but development in the same direction.

He cited Vincent of Lerins a couple times.

At the same time, in his ramble, he used the word “change” in regard to the Church’s teaching the death penalty (which certain is NOT in keeping with Vincent’s admonition):

Then… and remember, he rambles and his answers seem sometimes like a bag full of cats, but this was in response to something about contraception and changing dogma:

A Church that does not develop its thought in an ecclesial sense is a Church that goes backwards. And this is the problem of so many who call themselves traditional today. They are not traditional, they are “indietrists,” they are going backwards without roots — “That’s the way it has always been done,” “That’s the way it was done in the last century.” Indietrism [looking backward] is sin because it does not go forward with the Church. And instead, someone described tradition — I think I said it in one of the speeches — as the living faith of the dead and instead for these “indietrists,” who call themselves “traditionalists,” it is the dead faith of the living.

Tradition is the root of inspiration to go forward in the Church, always these roots, and “indietrism,” looking backward, is always closed. It is important to understand well the role of tradition, which is always open like the roots of the tree. The tree grows like that, no. A composer had a very beautiful phrase — Gustav Mahler — said that tradition in this sense is the guarantee of the future, it is not a museum piece. If you conceive tradition as closed, this is not Christian tradition. Always it is the root substance that takes you forward forward forward. That’s why what you say above thinking, carrying forward faith and morals, while going in the direction of the roots, of the substance goes well with these three rules I mentioned of Vincent of Lerins.

I think many people who desire traditional Catholic worship will read this with increased alarm, as if it will bear much more increase. It is important to keep it in its context: airplane presser, and about contraception and other defined teachings – not liturgy. However, liturgy IS doctrine. Hence, you see the path of his thought. Does this apply to liturgy? Yes, and no. It is mostly a string of cliches in a context that makes no difference. Still, we get a glimpse of his thought.

I leave you will the image of the Francis and others invoking,