Daily Rome Shot 219

Posted on 16 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf


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This story has it all. Grand backdrops! Carabinieri … in clerics? JESUITS!

Posted on 15 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When the movie is made, it must star Peter Sellers as the Capo of the Guardia di Finanza‘s Bunko Squad on load from the Paris Sûreté, at one point impersonating an Argentinian in white.

From Crux:

Undercover as priests, Italian cops bust $2 million fake cardinals scam

ROME – A group of con men who dressed up as cardinals to swindle victims out of millions of dollars have been caught by Italian police, in an undercover sting operation conducted by officers who were disguised as priests.

Members of the Carabinieri, the Italian military police who enjoy broad authority in Italy, set the trap at the Basilica of Holy Mary of Angels and Martyrs in central Rome after receiving complaints from two hotels that were scammed out of 20,000 euros ($23,631) and 75,000 euros ($88,616) in 2017.

Since 1988, the group of five con men, aged between 58-75, pretended to be priests, monsignors, and even cardinals, presenting themselves as “intermediaries of the Vatican” who could offer business owners in financial trouble, mostly in northern Italy, advantageous loans either from the Vatican bank or a non-existent Luxembourg financial company called “Eurozone,” without requiring personal financial guarantees.

It wasn’t difficult for the grifters to get the fake attire, since Rome boasts dozens of shops selling clerical garments, including some that specialize in cardinals’ outfits. No special status or identification is required to purchase the clothing, in part because it’s often customary for friends and family of a cardinal to buy the required garments for him.

To be credible, the fraudsters, who met at a café in the Centocelle neighborhood in southeastern Rome every morning to discuss potential scams, would set up various meetings and exchange emails and contacts with their marks.

In order to sell the impression that they were priests or cardinals, calling themselves “Don Luca” or “Don Giuseppe,” many of the meetings took place near the Vatican. In one case an appointment took place at the Pontifical Gregorian University, which is run by the Jesuits and attended by a swath of priests, seminarians, and religious studying in Rome.

[…]

There’s more but that’s enough.

This story has it all.

Grand backdrops!

Carabinieri … in clerics?

JESUITS!

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D. Richmond: Another cancelled priest

Posted on 15 July 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The internecine war on priests continues.

Fr. Mark White has been in the news before. He is a priest of the Diocese of Richmond. He wrote on his blog about the sex abuse crisis until the Bishop of Richmond told him to stop. He did. During COVID Theatre he started again. Now the bishop kicked him out of his parish and, directly after the announcement, changed the locks on the rectory.  The bishop is seeking to have him laicized.

CANCELLED PRIEST

Even with the caveats that there are two sides to these stories, this is awful.

At the bottom of the piece I link here find links to previous articles about Fr. White.

From WRIC:

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A Virginia priest could be removed from the priesthood. He continued to blog about the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals even after the Catholic Diocese of Richmond Bishop ordered him to keep quiet.

8News first began digging into this story back in early 2020. Father Mark White at first obeyed an order to stop blogging. However, he restarted the online conversation once COVID hit and in-person church services halted. That has now prompted Bishop Barry Knestout to take their battle to Pope Francis.

The dispute heated up when in a surprise move, Bishop Knestout suddenly showed up at St. Francis of Assisi in Rocky Mount and took over mass. Father Mark White was the pastor at the Church. He also served as Pastor at St. Joseph’s in Rocky Mount.

During the televised service Bishop Knestout told viewers, “Father White and I are at odds.”

In the video shared with 8News, you see Pastor White is forced to stand in the background.

“Father White claims that I injured him. I claimed earlier that he injured me,” the Bisphot [sic] said during the service.

Shortly after that mass, White was locked out of the churches, his apartments, and essentially kicked to the curb.

“Thanks be to God I had a parishioner that was able to provide me with a place to live,” White said.

Now the embattled priest could lose his collar.

Bishop Knestout told White he’s petitioned Pope Francis to have him formally removed from the clergy state. [Over reaction much?!?]

“It breaks my heart. I can’t see myself doing anything else,” White said.

Parishioners like Christy Hall are angry.

“They changed the locks on his apartment with no warning, I mean this is just goofy, childish stuff,” she said. “It is as about as un-Catholic as you get.”

[…]

When the one whom you ought to be able to rely on the most is the one who trashes you, it hurts all the more.

Men try to work things out.

This is the time God chose for us to be alive.  Not some other time and place, but here and now.   We are His team here on Earth and we are His war fighters.  The harder the fight, the greater the merit.

 

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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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