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{]:¬)

A dying Catholic school reborn and flourishing

Posted on 22 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At Crisis there is a wonderful piece about the revival of a dying Catholic school through the application of – dare I say it – Catholic common sense. HERE

The school is attached to Sacred Heart parish in Grand Rapids, MI where Fr. Robert Sirico (also of Acton Institute) was pastor until his recent retirement.

When he arrived the school was moribund. When he retired it was thriving. They even opened a high school! People are moving there because of the school. Fr. Sirico talks about the changes they made.

Perhaps priests with parish schools and lay people involved in them should read this article and carefully weigh the implications.

Daily Rome Shot 310

Posted on 22 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Photo by The Great Roman™

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Rome Shot
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Gower Abbey with a new disc- Christ The King At Ephesus

Posted on 22 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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.

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

Posted in Women Religious | Tagged Gower Abbey
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21 Oct – St Gaspar del Bufalo – “Il martello dei Carbonari… Hammer of Freemasons”

Posted on 21 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is not only the anniversary of the time travel scene in Back To The Future via the souped up Delorean, it is also, and more importantly the Feast of St. Gaspar del Bufalo (+1837), “Hammer of Freemasons”.

I have interest in St. Gaspar as one of my Roman patrons because I exercised ministry as a seminarian and then deacon at the basilica in Rome where he helped to found devotion to and the Confraternity of the Most Precious Blood at San Nicola in Carcere. He had a tense relationship with the state (Napolean’s police were after him) and Masons tried mulitple times to assassinate him.

His answer to the French commissar asking him to sign his submission to emperor should be the motto of every pope and bishop requested to yield to the world:

“I can’t, I musn’t, I don’t want to.”

That’s how a Roman priest says ‘No’ when he wants to be talkative.”

It’s better in Italian.

‘Non posso, non debbo, non voglio!’

I wonder if Pius VII’s “Non debemus, non possumus, non volumus” didn’t come from St. Gaspar.

These days it’s more like, “Volumus! Possumus! Debetote etiam vos!”

His tomb is in the little S. Maria in Trivio, tucked away behind where the more flashy Trevi Fountain is collocated. His bronzen tomb is not set off by glass and the hand of the image of the saint is extended outward so that you can graps it. It is quite moving.

It seems that St. Gaspar had ways that really could irritate, as many saints. For example, he could sense satanic objects and would charge into peoples homes to sieze and destroy them no matter how well hidden.

When he was young, he grew up across the mighty Church of the Gesù where his father was a cook for the Jesuit college there. When Gaspar was very young he had a malady of the eyes that threatened blindness. He was cured through the intercession of St. Francis Xavier, whose tomb is in the Gesù. As a priest of Rome he was critical of the Papal States which got him into hot water.

St. Gaspar, Hammer of Freemasons, pray for us.

My 1st class relic of St. Gaspar.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged St. Gaspar del Bufalo
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YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 21 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

PLEASE use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

Registered here or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

Let’s remember all who are ill, who will die soon, who have lost their jobs, and who are afraid.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Some are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below.

You have to be registered here to be able to post.

I ask a prayer for myself. I’m dealing with a lot of challenges right now.

Also, please pray for PT mother of 11 with advanced cancer and very little time remaining in this life.

Also, a neighbor, M, just diagnosed with cancer.

Also, for those recently bereaved.

And let’s not forget Fr. Dana Christensen, who has advancing ALS.

Posted in Urgent Prayer Requests | Tagged Your Urgent Prayer Requests
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STOP what you are doing. Go to First Things. Read Archbp. Chaput’s latest about the “courtiers” of Francis.

Posted on 21 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This post’s title says it all.

Go to First Things – HERE

For those of you who dawdle, a couple tastes:

Bernard of Clairvaux, the great 12th-century saint and Doctor of the Church who renewed the Western monastic tradition, once warned that “The most grievous danger for any pope lies in the fact that, encompassed as he is by flatterers, he never hears the truth about his own person and ends by not wishing to hear it.”

Every pontificate has its courtiers. The current one is no exception; quite the opposite. Thus, St. Bernard’s words came easily to mind as I read a recent Austen Ivereigh article for America magazine.

He calls them “courtiers” which is polite.

[…]

Conflict, a lot of it, both within and beyond the Church, comes with the job of every bishop. The bishop of Rome is not excused from that unhappy burden. And EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, whom Ivereigh seems to regard as a special tool of the diabolos, does not pose quite the same fearsome threat to the Church as, say, China’s Xi Jinping. Or significant figures in America’s current leadership.

[…]

Massimo Faggioli’s sunny assessment of Joe Biden and Biden’s seeming common ground with Pope Francis—his recent book is Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States—certainly qualifies him for courtier status, despite his text being rudely dismembered by veteran religion journalist Ken Woodward in a Religion News Service critique. Prof. Faggioli’s relentless commentary on the United States, American Catholics, and so much more—he arrived in our country in 2008, apparently knows everything about us, and currently teaches at Villanova University—makes up in astonishing breadth for what it lacks in depth. In December of last year, Faggioli suggested that “the parallel between [Biden] and the late Italian pope [John XXIII] certainly offers hope from a historical point of view.” Or maybe not so much. Any parallel between the two men might be news to the saintly dead pope, since the Democratic party has effectively sacramentalized abortion, exterminated pro-life Catholic witness in its ranks—ask former Congressman Dan Lipinski—and our “Catholic” president has signed on fully to the party’s slash and burn campaign.

Neither Ivereigh nor Faggioli measures up, though, to that zenith of melodrama and ill will achieved in 2017 by Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa.

[…]

Are you ready to go there yet?

Note the “Donate” button at the bottom of that page. I did.

Posted in The Drill | Tagged Archcbp. Charles Chaput, First Things, Massimo Faggioli
8 Comments

Bp. Provost of Lake Charles implements ‘Traditionis custodes’, Francis ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’ legacy document

Posted on 21 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The motto on the coat-of-arms of Most Rev. Glen John Provost, Bishop of Lake Charles (Louisiana), is Pro Futuris Serit… He sows for the sake of those to come. His CV is HERE. A quick scan suggests that he is a cultured man.

Bp. Provost issued a decree for the Diocese of Lake Charles about Francis’ Plessy v. Ferguson legacy document, the cruel Traditionis custodes.

Frankly, the best reaction from diocesan bishops would be to ignore it. But…

Bp. Provost put out an explanatory letter with a decree. The letter sets the context for the diocese: recovery from hurricanes, flooding, pandemic. And now, Traditionis custodes.

I am issuing this Decree for the implementation of Traditionis custodes in compliance with its prescriptions. As a pastor and a bishop, I am aware of the needs of the flock and address them. We do so liturgically for numerous groups that require special attention, such as our University students, the Hispanic community, and the hearing impaired. Our pastoral concern extends as well to those who worship in the usus antiquior, that is with the Roman Missal of 1962, and who have done so since the establishment of the Diocese. I am unaware of anyone in this community who has expressed opposition to the Second Vatican Council, much less denied its legitimacy. As well, those who have chosen to discuss with me their devotion to the usus antiquior have insisted upon the validity of the reformed liturgy. With this in mind, I would be grossly negligent, if not callous, to implement any restrictive law while at the same time ignoring these realities.

Bravo.

The whole thing breaks down into.

We are up to our neck dealing with disasters.
And now comes this document when we have real problems.
I’ve not experienced the negative things that are claimed about Tradition oriented people.
People are just trying to do there best here.

The decree.

The bishop is invoking can. 87 to dispense from TC art.3 § 2 and Masses in the Vetus Ordo will continue at parishes, which are now designated at locations for the Vetus Ordo.
There is no prohibition of the administration of the other sacraments.
The bishop will grant the faculty to any priest who is idoneus. This is for private celebration (which I don’t think a priest needs) and publicly at approved times.
Pastors should seek permission to begin new Masses.
Priests can use the Breviarium Romanum and Ordo for confessions.
New priests should ask for the faculty.
He appointed a priest to be moderator for all of this.
The Institute of Christ the King can continue as before.

This is minimally invasive and, all things considered, about the best application of the cruel and unnecessary Traditionis custodes we have seen.

Fr. Z kudos to Bp. Provost.

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

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Fr. Z KUDOS, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Save The Liturgy - Save The World, Traditionis custodes | Tagged Bp. Glen John Provost, D. Lake Charles, Traditionis custodes
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Daily Rome Shot 309

Posted on 21 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Rome Shot
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Beautiful Pontifical Mass with Bp. Athanasius Schneider in Detroit – PHOTOS

Posted on 20 October 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This last weekend in Detroit there was held the annual Call To Holiness conference, with which I have been involved in the past. This year, Bp. Athanasius Schneider was a speaker and the celebrant for a Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool at the beautiful Assumption Grotto Church.

I have some photos.

I am particularly proud to share these photos here because some of YOU READERS contributed to have them made. I commissioned them from Gammarelli in Rome for the TMSM, the Tridentine Mass Society of Madison, of which I am still the president. The TMSM was happy to loan out this green set, which had not yet been used for a Pontifical Mass. We have also additional dalmatics for a Mass at the Throne and an antependium which they decided not to use at Grotto for this Mass: their altar is far wider than it is.

The TMSM is a 501(c)(3) organization, and accepts donations. I am still involved. We are NOT giving up or giving in, so keep on giving! That way we can expand and help groups working to maintain the beautiful Traditional Roman Rite!

I received a collection of photos from the conference and the Mass and after the Mass when Bishop Schneider was meeting people. Do NOT tell Beans but there were… shhhhh, this is secret… NON-WHITE PEOPLE there! Again, don’t tell Beans. He put the lie about that only white people like the TLM, suggesting that you, we, are all racists. HERE

The music for this Pontifical Mass at Grotto was the Missa Princeps Pacis by William Lloyd Webber.

As you look at the photos, you can hear the Mass. It’s short and lovely and in the best English tradition of sacred choral music.

Some select shots.

First, the church.

During the sermon, Bp. Scheider said:

We don’t yet know. Maybe it will come a time, when the celebration of the traditional Mass will be very much limited. In such a situation there could arise a chain of catacomb-Masses, as happens in times of emergency and persecution. Maybe many Catholics of our day shall live through a time similar to that described by St Basil the Great, during the persecution of traditional Catholics by the liberal Arian episcopate in the fourth century. He wrote:

“The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot; the better laity shun the churches as schools of impiety; and lift their hands in the deserts with sighs and tears to their Lord in heaven. Even you must have heard what is going on in most of our cities, how our people with wives and children and even our old men stream out before the walls, and offer their prayers in the open air, putting up with all the inconvenience of the weather with great patience, and waiting for help from the Lord.” (Ep. 92)