Wherein Jesuit Fr Thomas Reese kicks in a goal for the other team

Posted on 15 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Archlib Jesuit (tautology?) Fr. Thomas Reese at RNS has perhaps scored an auto-goal (aka own goal).

In a plaintive mewl, Reese laments the cool reception and, I suppose, implied resistance to Francis.  “It’s the beginning of the end!”

Get this:

I wonder if he stopped and read that paragraph aloud to himself before click the SEND button.

Still, Reese isn’t wrong.

My time with seminarians and young priests informs me that, when Francis is mentioned, they become quiet and show a respectful demeanor.  They perk up considerably at the mention of John Paul II and, especially, Benedict.

The plural of anecdote is “data”.

Meanwhile, please suppose the

BIRETTAS FOR SEMINARIANS PROJECT!

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Imagine the shock of the Jews, who knew their Scripture, when they heard Jesus say…

Posted on 15 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

“Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”  Genesis 9:4

From the very beginning, when God instructed humanity about our stewardship rights and responsibilities, the consumption of blood was forbidden by divine decree.  Later, in the liturgical laws lain down by God, the edict is repeated in the context of offering sacrifice.

“If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.  For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life.  Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.  Any man also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust.

“For the life of every creature is the blood of it; therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.”   Leviticus 17:10-14

Imagine the shock of the Jews, who knew their Scripture, especially about sacrifice, when they heard Jesus say:

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.    John 6:52-57

Remember that, “life is in the blood”?

LIFE is in His Blood.

July is the month in which we give special honor to the Most Precious Blood, starting with Its feast on 1 July.

With each Holy Communion you receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.  Whether under one species, just the Host, or by both, you receive the “life” that’s in the Blood, a singular drop of which is the greater in worth than the vastness of the cosmos and all that is in it.

GO TO CONFESSION!

 

 

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Daily Rome Shot 218

Posted on 15 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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UPDATED – ASK FATHER: My mother in law put the “evil eye” on me and terrible things happened.

Posted on 14 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 14 July 2021:

When I posted about a new book from a priest friend I hadn’t yet gotten into it.  Now I have.   It is fascinating and some it pertains to the post, below.

The Trouble with Magic: Our Failed Search for More and Christ’s fulfillment of our Desires
by Fr. Cliff Ermatinger

US HERE – UK HERE (newly added!)

Originally Published on: Jul 13, 2021

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

my Italian mother in law told me she could put the evil eye on people to harm them. then a few years later, I got successful at work, she was very jealous, sick narcissist. she kept asking to look into my eyes bc she “loved the color” then she told me I was going to get into a  car accident and I did, and got brain damage and couldn’t work anymore. Through God saving me, I got better but then a few years later, covid hit. she manipulated husband saying she was scared and lonely. he brought her to live in our house.
everyday she staring at me, asking to look into my eyes. I did wind up looking in her eyes and  I could feel pure evil coming from her. then one day she was screaming and raging, made crazy hand gestures and screamed “I would be terrified”  next thing I know, I. started feeling ill. went to the doctor and they told me I had a horrible disease, no one knew how I got it. I needed 2 surgeries.  I’m not mad bc I see how God allowed this for my better. He made my faith stronger than ever. He brought me back to church. I am so happy now.  God worked her evil to my good. I am healthier than ever, but I just wonder…how is she able to do this? how do people learn to do this witchcraft? how do you think she learned or is able to do this stuff? do you believe it’s real? how can I protect myself in the future? actually even more horrible stuff happened you wouldn’t believe while she was in our lives. Thank you for your help.

GUEST PRIEST RESPONSE: Fr. Anonymous Exorcist

How is she able to do this? 

Demonic agency – like in all witchcraft.

How do people learn to do this witchcraft?

Every country has its own traditions and demonic rituals. According to the form used they have varying degrees of efficacy and even the manifestations of the oppressions or possession are proper to the type of witchcraft used; some countries have pretty beige rites with rather mundane manifestations, others have more intricate rituals effecting horrible manifestations. Italy is replete with witches and Satanists and the witchcraft used there is extremely potent.

How do you think she learned or is able to do this stuff?

Who am I to judge?

Do you believe it’s real?

Yes.

How can I protect myself?

Live the life of sacramental grace, deep mental prayer and adoration, have intimate and tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph, St. Michael; forgive everyone who has ever done you wrong, live with purity of heart and mind and body, strive for perfection in virtue, do your duties according to your state in life with love and a sense of perfection, offering it up to the Sacred Heart and for the conversion of sinners.

If anything of an extraordinary sort does happen to you, it is allowed by God.

Remember, it is worse to commit a sin than it is to be possessed or oppressed.

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Excellent piece today at Crisis: The War to Destroy the Eucharist

Posted on 14 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do NOT miss this terrific article at Crisis by Jerome German: The War to Destroy the Eucharist.  He treats the issue of withholding Communion from  errant public figures but does so with amazing clarity.

Tastes:

[…]

We walk among saints and monsters. Such are the days with which we are blessed. It is the ultimate naïveté or denial to live in our era and to be oblivious of the fact that we are walking through a battlefield. Such oblivion pleases the powers of darkness a great deal. When the unarmed wander onto the battlefield, they need not be resisted; they will fall in due time.

On a battlefield, everything is a weapon: information, water, shelter, clothing, medicine, and last but certainly not least, food. Starving soldiers do not win wars. The supply line, or the lack thereof, will determine the outcome of a battle just as surely as the quality of the munitions or the training of the troops.

[…]

Those who receive unworthily do not even acknowledge the existence of the battlefield of life—the confrontation that permeates all of existence. Viaticum is of no value for the pusillanimous struggle they are waging on the battlefield of vanity, a silly little sociopolitical game of prestige and saving face, the stuff of middle-school popularity contests. Theirs is the immaturity that permeates our era. By supporting them in their sad little diversion from reality, our bishops are preventing their charges from marching onto the battlefield of life and are galvanizing their oblivion to the real battle. They thereby sacrifice these errant souls on the altar of their own petty clerical games of prestige and saving face.

[…]

 

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Daily Rome Shot 217

Posted on 14 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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Of a late Monsignor, the Most Catholics of Gins, and the Stele of Thermopylae

Posted on 14 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw a re-tweet from the head of the Latin Mass Society, Joseph Shaw, announcing yesterday as the anniversary of the death of the famous Msgr. Alfred Gilbey.

I met him once, at the Travellers’ in London.  He died in 1998 and a great Traditional Requiem was celebrated for him at the Brompton Oratory.

Gilbey was of an interesting family, whose influence may reach into your home.

From 1962

His grandfather, Alfred, was the founder of Gilbey’s London Gin. Another member of the family, Guy Hugh, invented the apparatus that carbonates water, which has evolved into the SodaStream company.

When I was recently with some clerical friends in Detroit, before a great Supper For The Promotion Of Clericalism, our pre-prandials included Martinis made with that “most Catholic of gins”, Gilbey’s.  They were properly made, with the technique of scenting the chilled glass with a rinse of vermouth, then poured out, and the addition of your pre-chilled gin and, for me, a twist.

There has been a ridiculous explosion of new gins.   Some of them are eccentric.   Some are wonderful in themselves, but perhaps not always the very best choice.

One might be tempted to turn one’s nose up at the notion of Gilbey’s humble, straight-forward dry London gin.  That would be a mistake.  On that evening, with that company, I enjoyed one of the best Martinis I’ve had in a long time.

Circling back to Msgr. Gilbey, he was chaplain at Cambridge for decades.  When there was a threat that the house might be sold, he responded, “Over my dead body.”

They backed down.

This is something of the spirit we need right now.

Over my dead body.

 

 

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ASK FATHER: RUMOR – Will the attack on Summorum Pontificum be on Friday, O.L. of Mt. Carmel?

Posted on 13 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I just read on Rorate that they expect Francis to issue his new motu proprio restricting the celebration of the Latin Mass this week Friday.  Do you think it was deliberate that they chose to issue it on the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel?  Perhaps this is a supernatural sign that it will fail.

A couple things.  First, there was an article in French at Le Figaro a couple days ago: HERE.

Rumor volat, vellicatim volat.   So far, those I’ve spoken too, pretty well plugged in with what is happening in Rome, say “Oh yes… it’s coming!”, but they don’t back it up with something concrete.

Maybe it is coming and maybe there isn’t.  I suspect no, rather than yes.  Either way, there is nothing that we can do about that but set our faces like flint, keep our shoulders to the task, and entrust the matter to the Mother of God, St. Joseph (don’t forget the Bux Protocol) and the Saints of the Roman Canon.  It avails nothing to panic and get everyone worked up.

Mind you, it’s not that I don’t think that there is a document that would strike at Summorum.  I firmly believe that there has been such a karstic document in draft form – popping in and out of view – since 8 July 2007.   I’d be surprised if there wasn’t, given the spittle-flecked hatred modernists have for the Traditional Mass, obstacle as it is to their goal of reducing the Church to an NGO.

Since denial of a rumor tends to make it grow, let’s play along for a moment.  Let’s say that this Friday, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, will be the day of release.

Deliberate?

I doubt it would deliberate from a spiritual point of view.  Would those who would issue such a document be aware that it will by Our Lady’s feast?  More likely, it is just a Friday, which is a sort of “take out the trash” day, giving them a weekend buffer to give statements.

Say, however, it were deliberate.  Then I observe that it was, during the Amazonian Synod (“walking together”), precisely at the Church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on the Via della Conciliazione, a stone’s throw from San Pietro and, hence, the meeting hall, that the shrine to the demon idol Pachamama was created.  Remember the pictures of a woman nursing a critter?  Remember the demonic idol taken from that church and pitched into the Tiber?  Remember the demon cult bowl placed on the altar of San Pietro?

Say it were deliberate.  Then I observe… GOOD.

Let them choose a feast of Our Lady, particularly beloved of so many traditional Catholics, many of whom are enrolled in the Brown Scapular!

Let them choose such a day to make their contempt for traditional Catholics even clearer.

Let them choose the Feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, to make their insult even deeper.

Giù la maschera!

There could hardly be a better way to stimulate a strong reaction to such an insult.

Circling back to the top, we really should avoid getting worked up about this until and if we see something real and reliable.

Meanwhile, it is never a waste of time to pray.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel… Our Lady Queen of the Clergy … Our Lady Queen of Angels…

St. Joseph… Patron of the Dying… Guardian of the Universal Church… Terror of Demons….

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ASK FATHER: Can a pastor delegate to a deacon the faculty to witness marriages of non-subjects?

Posted on 13 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Can a pastor where a wedding is held delegate faculties for a deacon to assist at marriages in his parish over subjects that are not his?

My wife and I were married by a Deacon in a parish that was no ours but he received faculties from HIS pastor where the marriage was held. Does this make the marriage valid or did the deacon need to also receive permission from OUR local Pastor instead.

Canon 1109 says pastors can assist at weddings of subjects that “are not their own” but it doesn’t mention deacons. Was my marriage still valid but maybe not licit (since our local pastor did not give permission to the deacon but he did receive permission from the pastor of the parish where the wedding took place).

The pastor (parish priest) has the faculty and can delegate to another priest or deacon (or bishop, for that matter).

The principle from the Regulae Iuris is in play here: “Potest quis per alium quod potest facere per seipsum – Someone can do through another what he can do by himself.”

All other things being in order such a marriage is presumptively valid and licit.

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UPDATE: Wine from the traditional Benedictines of Le Barroux – sale extended!

Posted on 13 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

If you missed it before, in honor of the Tour de France, which passed through their vineyards (from the time of the Avignon Popes – think Châteauneuf-du-Pape) the monks of Le Barroux have extended the sale of their fine wine till the end of the Tour, 18 July. I’ve had some and I warmly approve.

Order some now and tell them Fr. Z sent you in the note. Maybe we can get something going with them as we did with Norcia and their great beer!

HERE

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