Personal, home, cyber security and YOU

I have written many times about preparedness for emergencies, having a plan that your loved ones understand for various scenarios.

I have written many times about situational awareness and having gamed our in your head various possibilities in the case of an active shooter, etc.

I have written many times about having good supplies in a secure and accessible place.

I have written many times about steps to take to protect yourself and family.

In light of recent allegations about a priest having illegal material on a computer, I am reminded of incidents with priests who were accused of doing bad things with computers and internet only to be found innocent because their wifi security was bad and someone had hacked it.

Everyone has to be careful.

It’s always someone else… until it’s you.

Just today a weird thing happened. Someone parked in what is essentially a no-parking area on the street next to where I live.  I haven’t seen this before.  I had an optical gadget handy, so I took a closer look and saw what I thought was the driver moving his hand with a device around in the manner of one trying to get more bars or perhaps wifi.   That’s when I shut everything down, went out the side, and took a photo of the vehicle.  He sat there for a while longer and then left.  Distinctive vehicle.  I’ll keep my eyes open.

If you watch videos from a source like Hak5 you learn really fast the various ways to crack passwords, enter networks with half-handshake attacks, etc.   You can even get into a network through a wifi enabled appliance.   Hostiles can plant things on your cars or on your property.

Say you are out and about and find a USB drive.  Curious, you plug it into your computer to see what is on it.  You are now toast.  The drive had hostile scripts.  The drive was planted to get some sucker.   They can unlock your computer, copy your files, get your passwords in the blink of an eye and send it to someone.

Say you just left your laptop for a moment at the coffee shop or airport lounge. It would take a few seconds for someone to insert the drive and, bammo, your stuff is his stuff.  You are now toast.

Say you are out and about and your phone’s power is low.  You ask if you can use someone’s power cable.  You are now toast.  The power cable, indistinguishable from good ones, actually has “Rubber Ducky” scripts that can do amazing things to your phone and data that you won’t like.

Analogy.  I broke into my garage with a wedge and coat hanger in 15 seconds.   These scripts are a hell of a lot faster than that.   Access to your house through your garage makes you and yours vulnerable.  Access to your network, laptop, phone through USB drives, cables, half-handshakes, etc. makes you and yours vulnerable.

I once plugged by phone into the usb port on an airplane and got a message on my screen: Trust this network?”   HELL NO!   I now have these for all travel.  HERE

Changes have been made to the garage.  Changes have been made to cables.

Everyone… be careful out there.

Change passwords.  Make them strong.  Don’t use the same one over and over.

Keep your security tight, and use two-step identification.  Yes, take the extra annoying two seconds.

Treat view devices in the hands of nearby strangers as being filled with the CCP virus.

Leaving your mobile phone at home if you can.

Use signal blocking bags.

 

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UPDATE From Fr. Christensen, warrior priest against ALS – READ and PRAY

From Fr. Dana’s blog...

Our Lady of Loretto

The very icon that Fr. Dana Ambrose took to the hospital.

I haven’t posted since my extended stay in the hospital, more on that later. What I wanted to do today is share just one snippet of how God, in subtle ways, made himself known.

I had brought an icon that I had bought in Loretto. If you don’t know the miraculous story, you can look it up.

But nevertheless, I brought an icon to the normally devoid of religious hospital. I wanted something beautiful in a place of such pain, including my own.

The night before my surgery, which would definitively take away from my voice, I was quite emotional. Then the night nurse arrived. She immediately noticed the icon, and immediately identified herself as Greek Orthodox. She took the time to show me her home icons on her cell phone. She had the respect the orthodox have for priests. She treated me dignity, especially given my emotional state. She called me father when most doctors and nurses called me by my given name. I’ve certainty been called worse, but her pious gentility was a calm in the storm of my emotions.

As they wheeled me away to surgery next morning, she gave me the gift of reminding me just who I and what I was about in that moment. She said “I will probably get in trouble for this” and then commenced to kneel down, kissed my hand, and said “bless me father, and bless my family.”

What a reminder of who I was at that moment, a priest-warrior going into battle for the sake of Our Lady, and for the sake of the salvation of my soul the souls of all men.

Brother priests, monks, bishops, fight like the consecrated men you are. Otherwise hell awaits.

Memento mori

 

His expenses must be incredible, with 24/7 care.

Please, as you have helped me and others, now help Fr. Christensen.

Fr. Christensen wrote some time ago:

If you want to give a recurring monthly donation click on the red “Donate” tab above [at his site] or click

HERE.

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The Anti-Catholic Pogrom continues” Today… in Rome itself

I was informed that Rome had more bad news for us all… I include those who are dedicated to the Novus Ordo.

Remember… Novus Ordo fans!  Hurt one, all are wounded.  You are wounded by the persecution of those who love the Traditional Roman Rite. You should defend your brethren out of both self-interest and charity.

A friend said that the Vicariate of Rome – the “chancery” of the Diocese of Rome, whose Vicar, a Cardinal, runs Rome while a Pope popes – has forbidden celebration of the Triduum at all churches with the Vetus Ordo in Rome, including the PERSONAL PARISH, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, which is staffed by the FSSP.

I don’t have the energy to translate the hideous letter from the Vicar of Rome.  Rorate has a translation, HERE, which I will lift, below.

Suffice that… this repression is for, “facilitating ecclesial communion for those Catholics who feel bound to some previous liturgical forms”. Orwell stands in awe.

The repression is done with “lively pastoral charity”.

This pogrom is carried out “for the spiritual good of the faithful.”

The Vicar is setting up a Commissioner to handle requests from priests… blah blah blah…

“every day, except the Easter Triduum, the faithful may participate in the celebration of the Eucharist according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 in the parish of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini

I remind the readership of the meaning of the Latin term Vicarius.

Vir
Inutilis
Carens
Auctoritati
Rare
Intelligentiae
Umbra
Superioris


VICARIATO DI ROMA

Rome, October 7, 2021 [released to the public November 9, 2021]

– To all the priests involved in the pastoral care of the Diocese of Rome
– To all the faithful of the Diocese

Dear All,

The Diocese of Rome, welcoming the provisions of the Apostolic Letter in the form of a motu proprio of the Holy Father Francis Traditionis Custodes of July 16, 2021, intends with this Pastoral Letter to continue the work of “facilitating ecclesial communion for those Catholics who feel bound to some previous liturgical forms” (John Paul II, Litt. Ap. Motu proprio datae Ecclesia Dei, July 2, 1988), already underway in the City for many years.

To this end, it seemed opportune to continue to exercise a lively pastoral charity towards the faithful who “do not exclude the validity and legitimacy of the liturgical reform, the dictates of the Second Vatican Council and the Magisterium of the Supreme Pontiffs” (art. 3 §1, Traditionis Custodes) and who nevertheless wish to participate in the celebration of the Eucharist according to the Missale Romanum of 1962. For the spiritual good of the faithful, it is appropriate to offer precise coordinates for the implementation of the motu proprio.

The motu proprio establishes that the “liturgical books promulgated by the Holy Pontiffs Paul VI and John Paul II, in conformity with the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, are the sole expression [that’s a choice for “unica”] of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite” (art. 1, Traditionis Custodes) and that therefore it is no longer possible to use the Roman Ritual and the other liturgical books of the “ancient rite” for the celebration of sacraments and sacramentals (e.g., the Ritual for the reconciliation of penitents according to the ancient form). The use of the other Ordines, therefore, is currently expressly forbidden and only the use of the Missale Romanum of 1962 remains permitted.

Moreover, all priests—diocesan or religious—who wish to continue to avail themselves of the faculty of celebrating according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 in the territory of the Diocese of Rome must first be authorized in writing by the diocesan Bishop (cf. art. 5, Traditionis Custodes).

All requests concerning the implementation of the motu proprio are to be sent in writing to me, the Cardinal Vicar, who will regulate them through a Commissioner designated by me for the ordinary management of all the fulfilments that fall within the competence of the diocesan Ordinary, especially for the purpose of the correct exercise of the faculties recognized by the P.M. for the faithful who intend to avail themselves of the prerogatives provided for therein. He is endowed with delegated power (cf. can. 131 §1 C.I.C.) and his office is to be kept distinct from that provided for in art. 3 §4 of the P.M., which for the moment will not be activated in the Diocese of Rome, since it is not necessary. In fact, I confirm the entrusting pro tempore to the Parish Priest of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini of the task of taking care of the dignified celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy, as well as of the ordinary pastoral and spiritual care of these faithful. He will carry out this office animated by a lively pastoral charity and by a sense of ecclesial communion; he will act in close communion and collaboration with the incumbent mentioned above.

In view of the above, I hereby decree that the Director of the Liturgical Office of the Vicariate of Rome shall hold the office of pro tempore Commissioner for the implementation of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes.

Coming to some necessary specific determinations, I further decree the following:

– all requests specifically related to art. 3 §2 of the motu proprio must explicitly mention the Church or Oratory in which the celebration is intended (except parish churches, cf. art. 3 §2 Traditionis Custodes);

– every day, except the Easter Triduum, the faithful may participate in the celebration of the Eucharist according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 in the parish of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini (cf. art. 3 §5, Traditionis Custodes);

– in the churches of St. Dominic and St. Sixtus, St. Celsus and St. Julian, St. Joseph at Capo le Case and St. Anne at the Lateran, the faithful may participate in the celebration of the Eucharist according to the Missale Romanum of 1962, to be celebrated at a time agreed upon with the Rector of the church and with the person in charge mentioned above, possibly also on Sundays and feast days of obligation (excluding the Easter Triduum);

– the readings will always be proclaimed in Italian, according to the CE.I. 2008 translation (cf. art. 3 §3, Traditionis Custodes).

Trusting in the confident acceptance by all of what I have disposed, I bless you with affection and accompany you with my prayers.

Angelo Card. DE DONATIS
Vicar General of His Holiness
for the Diocese of Rome
Prot. no. 1845/21
Original letter

1986-80, After the Pogrom, Artist: Minkowski, Photographer: John Parnell, Photo © The Jewish Museum, New York

Posted in Pò sì jiù, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, Traditionis custodes | Tagged
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Beautiful VIDEO from the traditional Benedictine monks of Le Barroux – the “Wine Monks”

In anticipation of a book release on 25 November, the traditional Benedictines of Le Barroux – the Wine Monks – have a splendid video.

These monks revived an ancient vineyard which had once been the papal terrain of the Avignon Popes. It is gloriously beautiful countryside in southern France. One of the stages of the last Tour de France went right by their vines.

You can get their fine wine with a 10% discount with my code: FATHERZ10.  They have a “Thanksgiving Assortment” now.

Help these traditional monks.  They use the Vetus Ordo and they are thriving as a community.  Support these good causes, such as the Wine Monks of Le Barroux and the Beer Monks of Norcia, Italy.

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

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ASK FATHER: If I’m aware of mortal sin, can I receive Communion if I intend to go to confession later?

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

My uncle wants to become Catholic and ive been taking him to RCIA classes. The priest is a great guy but said you can receive the Eucharist if you intend to confess after mass. I know this is bogus since you’re still in mortal sin. How and with what source(s) should I let the priest know?

Among other sources, look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church and can. 916 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Can. 916 A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.

Unless there is a GRAVE REASON.

“It’s Sunday, I’m here, and I want to receive!”, is NOT a GRAVE REASON.

People are not obliged to receive Communion at every Mass.   So many sacrilegious Communions could be avoided if people could get this into their heads.  Rather… if priests would do their jobs correctly?

Also, even though there are not many places now – sadly – where confessions are heard before and during Mass, they are nevertheless usually heard some place nearby in the days before Sunday or Holy Days of Obligation.  Since a person ought to be making a daily examination of conscience, this scenario can be avoided with relative ease.

Of course there are rare situations where circumstances are different.  That is why the canon is written as it is.

Bottom line: If a person is aware of mortal sin, and is sure about it, he must not receive until after he has made a good confession of all mortal sins in kind and number and has received absolution.

This is not hard.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Canon Law | Tagged ,
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Marvelous piece about the Benedictine nuns at Gower Abbey and their new chant recording

The wonderful Benedictine nuns of Gower Abbey in Missouri, who were the victims of  drive by shootings a while ago, who are award winning recording artists, have a new disc of sacred music coming out in honor of Christ the King.

There is a piece at Crux – which surprised me a little – about the recording of the new album… and more.  It touches on the beautiful Benedictine and traditional spirit of the Abbey.

If you want to have smile and a lift up out of generally bad news, read that piece at Crux.

This is one of the most wonderful monasteries of Benedictines … anywhere.  I was at the consecration of their abbey church and the consecration of Abbess by the late, lamented Bp. Morlino.

Christ the King at Ephesus from Benedictines of Mary on Vimeo.

ORDER a disc

HERE

Digital only

HERE

 

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Daily Rome Shot 326

Help the Benedictines of Norcia build their monastery!

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8 Nov: Four Holy Crowned Martyrs. An object lesson about fooling around with demonic idols (aka Pachamama)

Today is the Feast of the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs.  They were sculptors in ancient Rome who refused to carve pagan demon idols.  Hence, they were killed by the Emperor Diocletian.

Their remains are in the Roman church of St. Marcellinus and Peter.  Greatly venerated by the Romans there is an interesting Basilica dedicated to them on the street that goes up the side of the Caelian Hill from the Colosseum to the Lateran Basilica (of which Dedication we celebrate soon).  I used to walk by this church, and San Clemente, every day on the way to university and often stopped in.

These martyrs refused to carve idols.

I wonder what they would think of Pachamama.  The garden adulation.  Setting up shop in a church.  Being carried around in St. Peter’s.  A demon idol cult bowl put on the altar of St. Peter’s.

Ponder that.

Meanwhile, these sculptors, as patron of sculptors, were highly regarded in the lofty days of Florence.  At the Church of Orsanmichele there is a statue group of them in a niche on the outer wall (the originals are inside, in a museum).  A friend in Florence sent pics:

In the museum…

In the Philadelphia Museum of Art you find a terrific Medieval collection, including a 15th c. altar piece from the same Orsanmichele.  Note that the one in charge over the torturers is being strangled by a demon.

The martyrs refused to have anything to do with idols.

Fool around with demons… you won’t win.   And if people on high fool around with demons, lots of people suffer.

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Two fascinating posts about liturgy, inculturation, papal ceremony. Wherein Fr. Z rants with the help of the Blessed Apostle Paul.

I direct the readership’s attention to two brilliant posts by Shawn Tribe at Liturgical Arts Journal.

The first presents music from the 19th c. for the Requiem Mass – appropriate for November – in the Mohawk and Algonquin language.   Jesuit missionaries devised a writing scheme the texts, which were set to the Gregorian chant melodies in modern notation. If you are musically inclined, you might take a moment and try to sing it.  HERE

It is a fascinating glimpse into inculturation, which the Jesuit missionaries sometimes pushed too far (as in the East when they tried rice cakes instead of wheat for hosts and got seriously slapped down).

Authentic inculturation is both inevitable and desirable.  The Word, Love, unflushed itself.  We enflesh what we love in the context of our Holy Church.  So long as what the Church has to give to the world is given logical priority over what the world has to give to the Church, in this ongoing and simultaneous interchange, inculturation flows in enriching veins.  Once the logical priority is given to what the world has to give… game over.  Everything will go wrong and the beautiful fruits God gives through the Church will wrinkle, wither and rot.

What can start as a well-meaning desire to make some liturgical rite “more relevant” or “easily understood” can, without great patience and many checks and guard rails, slip out of the lane and then careen into disaster.  One can discern in certain efforts to conform the Church’s worship, law and doctrine (Cult, Code and Creed) to the world what Peter Kwasniewski described as “whoring after ephemeral relevance, a prostitution to the present age and its malevolent prince.”

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Next, Shawn has a visual feast of information photos about the vestments used by the Roman Pontiff for the celebration of Solemn Papal Mass.  There are special items, such as the fanon, which was worn by John Paul II and by Benedict XVI.  I don’t think we will see one on Francis any time soon.  Neither is he likely to use the subcinctorium.  It might clash with whatever that usual thing is that he prefers to wear.  HERE

Tribe makes a good point, not original by any means, but well expressed:

No doubt some will consider all of this overly complicated, even ‘fussy’, formed as they are by a certain contemporary mentality that we can find in certain subsets of modern Western thought (though these are thoughts that are generally neither universally applied, nor consistently so, let us make note). However the reality is that each of these carry a particular meaning and symbolism related to theology, ecclesiology and liturgiology. What’s more, they are not the sole prerogative of the Church for throughout the course of human history we find manifest the human need to denote tiers of leadership by means of symbolic ornamentation and decoration. This is manifest not only in the vestments and vesture of popes and prelates, but also civic, military and religious leaders generally, whether within the context of our modern Western societies or within the most remote tribal societies. In that sense, if we divorce ourselves from such symbols, we are essentially attempting to divorce ourselves from humanity and our human instincts.

When you love, you want to do more. You want to know more and understand what you know.

That’s how our theological methodology developed.

That’s why our doctrine organically developed from the Scriptures and Regula Fidei.  That’s how our sacred liturgical worship developed… which is doctrine.

Over time, we enriched, each generation adding little touches to compliment rather than detract from what our forebears contributed.   To put it another way, regarding development of Cult, Code and Creed, (worship, law, doctrine),

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; (1 Cor 13) 

Our liturgical worship is the glorious and worthy distillation of the Christian experience across many cultures for many generations. Patiently and lovingly it grew and was tended and maintained.  This is the Vetus Ordo of the Roman Church.

Then came the reformers who, with the power they usurped and weaponized within the Consilium, using the authority of the Council against the Sacred Congregation for Rites and manipulating in a double-pronged maneuver both Paul VI and the experts of the Consilium, they arrogantly, rudely, imposed their own will on the Church in the construction of a new Rite, the Novus Ordo, abruptly imposed.

And now, their ideological offspring “insist on their own way“.

Traditionis custodes.

Abrupt changes in Cult, Code and Creed are not the Catholic way.

Abrupt changes signal that something has gone very wrong.

In a book over the signature of Annibale Bugnini’s secretary, later papal MC and now Archbp. Piero Marini A Challenging Reformwe read of the machinations of the Consilium of its head Card. Lercaro and Bugnini.  Here is a smoking gun quote about how the kingpins of the Consilium were trying to, not fulfil the wishes of the Council Fathers, but impose their own will on the Church’s worship and, therefore , her belief.

Context: The Consilium has just taken a major step in moving from an informally meeting group to an officially and formally established body.  They have their first plenary session.

“They met in public to begin one of the greatest liturgical reforms in the history of the Western church.  Unlike the reform after Trent, it was all the greater because it also dealt with doctrine.”  (p. 46)

They succeeded.  The work of the Consilium, in revising the Missale Romanum, did indeed change the Church’s doctrine. Change the way you pray and you change what you believe… and vice versa.

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

The Memorare in Latin

Posted in Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Save The Liturgy - Save The World, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged , ,
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Your Sunday Sermon Notes: Resumed 5th Sunday after Epiphany (32nd Ordinary – N.O.)

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass for your Sunday obligation (or, maybe still none), either live or on the internet? Let us know what it was.

What was attendance like?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.  I was getting reports that it is way up.

Any local changes or news?

For those of you who regularly viewed my live-streamed daily Masses – with their fervorini – for over a year, you might drop me a line.  There are developments.

I have some remarks about the TLM – HERE “Sinful Clerics of a Spotless Church”

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