Anti-Catholic cartoon reveals the spirit of the recent anti-life Irish referendum

Posted on 29 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A lay reader today alerted me to an opinion cartoon in The Sunday Independent in Ireland. That sad, earthly-enslaved nation repealed by referendum the 8th amendment to their Constitution, which protected the right to life of the unborn.  The Constitution, by the way, begins in the name of the Trinity and says, “humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, …”.

Here’s the cartoon.   I think it says a lot about what was driving those who drove the referendum.

Meanwhile, at First Things, read the piece by John Waters, who, inter alia, wrote:

[…]

If you would like to visit a place where the symptoms of the sickness of our time are found near their furthest limits, come to Ireland. Here you will see a civilization in freefall, seeking with every breath to deny the existence of a higher authority, a people that has now sentenced itself not to look upon the Cross of Christ lest it be haunted by His rage and sorrow.

[…]

For the first time in history, a nation has voted to strip the right to life from the unborn. The victims of this dreadful choice will be the most defenseless, those entirely without voice or words. This is the considered verdict of the Irish people, not—as elsewhere—an edict of the elites, imposed by parliamentary decree or judicial fiat. The Irish people are now the happy ones who dash their own children against the rocks.

[…]

The Church, with the exception of a sprinkling of pastorals, was tactically absent. This reticence is understandable in respect of the public realm: The leveraging of antipathy towards Catholicism is a core element of the pro-abortion strategy. What was unforgivable was that this silence extended to pulpits. The Association of Catholic Priests,[Ass. of Catholic Priests] a kind of theo-ideological trade union, intervened to criticize a minor trend of pro-lifers delivering homilies during Masses.

[…]

A priest correspondent wrote a group email today connecting us with Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s piece.  HERE  His parenthetical comment was apt:

So how is that Second Pentecost, New Springtime of the Church, New Evangelization working out?

I wonder what sort of cataclysm will it take to wake people up?   What percentage of the population will have to be lost?  How close to an “extinction event” would it have to be?

Maran atha!

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Liberals, New Evangelization, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged
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Memorial Day and Chaplains

Posted on 28 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Capodanno_prayercardIt is fitting to honor those who served in the armed forces and who gave their lives.

Today I especially have in mind fallen military chaplains.

Here is just one example of service and valor for love of God, neighbor and country.

Father Vince Capodanno was Maryknoll missionary priest.  He was sent first to the missions in Taiwan and later joined the US Navy and served with the 7th Marines in Vietnam and then, after working at the naval hospital, with the 5th Marines.

On 4 September 1967 there was a terrible battle in Que-Son Valley.  As the battle developed Fr. Capodanno heard over the radio that things were getting dicey and so he requested to go out with M company.

As they approached the small village of Chau Lam, they were caught under fire on a knoll.  There was terrible fighting, even hand to hand, and they were almost over run.  Father Capodanno was wounded in the face and his hand was almost severed by a mortar round but he continued to giving last rites and take care of his Marines.  He was killed trying to get to a wounded marine only 15 yards away from an enemy machine gun.

In January 1969, Lieutenant Vincent R. Capodanno, MM, became the second chaplain in United States history to receive our nation’s highest military honor. “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty …”, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor Citation:

Medal-of-honorFor conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Chaplain of the 3d Battalion, in connection with operations against enemy forces.

In response to reports that the 2d Platoon of M Company was in danger of being overrun by a massed enemy assaulting force, Lt. Capodanno left the relative safety of the company command post and ran through an open area raked with fire, directly to the beleaguered platoon.

Disregarding the intense enemy small-arms, automatic-weapons, and mortar fire, he moved about the battlefield administering last rites to the dying and giving medical aid to the wounded.

When an exploding mortar round inflicted painful multiple wounds to his arms and legs, and severed a portion of his right hand, he steadfastly refused all medical aid. Instead, he directed the corpsmen to help their wounded comrades and, with calm vigor, continued to move about the battlefield as he provided encouragement by voice and example to the valiant Marines.

Upon encountering a wounded corpsman in the direct line of fire of an enemy machine gunner positioned approximately 15 yards away, Lt. Capodanno rushed a daring attempt to aid and assist the mortally wounded corpsman. At that instant, only inches from his goal, he was struck down by a burst of machine gun fire.

By his heroic conduct on the battlefield, and his inspiring example, Lt. Capodanno upheld the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the cause of freedom.

In addition, he was also awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal. The government of Vietnam awarded him the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Silver Star and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with device.

Fr. Capodanno’s cause has been opened:

Prayer to Obtain a Favor Through the Intercession of the Servant of God Father Vincent R. Capodanno, M.M. by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio

Almighty and merciful God, look with Love on those who plead for Your help. Through the intercession of your servant, Father Vincent Capodanno, missionary and Catholic Navy Chaplain, grant the favor I earnestly seek (mention the request). May Vincent, who died bringing consolation to the Marines he was privileged to serve on the field of battle, intercede in my need as I pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

I want to add a word of thanks to a priest friend of mine, Fr. Tim Vakoc, with whom I was in seminary.  He suffered serious wounds in Iraq, which, after causing years of suffering, eventually lead to his passing away. May he rest in peace.

These men served in hell armed with love of God and love of country.  We should remember chaplains.

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28 May – St Augustine of Canterbury: chance meetings make a difference

Posted on 28 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Chance meetings are important.

In the traditional Roman calendar, today is the Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury (+604).   He had been the prior of the monastery in Rome on the Caelian Hill during the pontificate of the Great Gregory I.  In the Novus Ordo he is celebrated on 27 May, though he probably died on 26 May.

As the story goes, one day Pope Gregory spotted some English boys in the Roman slave market and was struck by their appearance, saying “Non sunt Angli sed angeli.”  Moved to compassion, he tasked Augustine to go to England with missionaries in an effort of “new evangelization”.  England had once been Christian but the Faith had flagged.   Gregory paved the way with letters and missives, but the task was daunting.

Augustine and his companions landed in Kent and began to work.  They met with King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha and the rest is history.

My congratulations to my good friends Fr. Timothy Finigan, His Hermeneuticalness, who is a parish priest close to the place when Augustine set foot in England, Margate, and to Fr. Marcus Holden, who is rector of the Shrine of St Augustine, Ramsgate.

Chance meetings can be occasions of grace not just for one or two, but for nations.

Today we need to pray and make reparation for entire nations, lest they be – as Our Lady said – “annihilated”.

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Ireland votes pro-abortion for Trinity Sunday, the heavens respond

Posted on 27 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Irish constitution begins in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, stating:

“In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, We, the people of Éire, Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ . . .”

… vote to kill the unborn.”

In 2015, for Trinity Sunday, the Irish voted for same-sex mockery of marriage.

This year, 2018, Ireland voted for abortion for Trinity Sunday.

Also, this year, as reported by the BBC, terrible lightning storms raged between Dublin and London, the city to which Irish women went for abortions until now.   HERE there is a piece with amazing photos.

Around 15,000 lightning strikes were recorded in four hours on Saturday night, BBC Weather said.

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Did the catholic Left and homosexualists ignore Pope Francis’ words about seminarians?

Posted on 26 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day Pope Francis told the Italian bishops not to admit homosexual men as seminarians.    I wrote a post about it HERE.  CNA also reported it.   Reuters had it.

“If there’s a doubt about homosexuality, it’s better not to have them enter the seminary.”

Can you readers help me out?

I am looking for reportage on the Holy Father’s admonition on the part of the liberal catholic outlets, such as Fishwrap, Commonwelt, Amerika, The Bitter Pill and so forth, and the usual homosexual and homosexualist suspects.  You know who they are.

For example, at Jesuit-run Amerika, which harbors Jesuits homosexualist activist James Martin, SJ, I found an article about Italian archbishop’s slobbering preface to the Italian edition of Martin’s ambiguous book.  HERE  But, I did not find an article about the Pope’s remarks to all the Italian bishops.

I admit that I may have missed it.

I may have missed the report and supportive commentary by Massimo Faggioli, Robert Mickens, Michael Sean Winters, etc.

Aren’t we supposed to hang on every single thing this Holy Father says?

The Tablet (aka The Bitter Pill aka RU-486) seems not to have covered it. Again, I may have missed it.  However, there is a story about a dog being a saint.

Fishwrap (aka National Sodomitical Reporter) posted something from Catholic News Service about the audience of the Italian bishops with the Pope, but it omitted the comment about homosexuals.  HERE  However, I wonder if it was included in the original CNS story HERE.  I don’t know because the CNS story is behind a paywall.

CRUX had something about it the Pope meeting with the bishops and about his concerns.  HERE  However, their piece didn’t cite the Pope speaking about the doubt about a prospective seminarian’s orientation and exclusion from the seminary and it spun ti to stress homosexual acts.

I found a single tweet from homosexualist activist James Martin SJ:

First, he turns that on heterosexual men who present “problems”.  That is to admit that homosexual orientation is a “problem”.  And then he changes the topic.  The Pope was talking about seminarians.  Martin shifts it to men already ordained and then quotes the Pope’s often misused words, “Who am I to judge?”  The Pope was talking about admission of men to seminary, to about men already ordained.  The Pope was saying that these men should not be ordained.

Italian born Massimo “Beans” Faggioli was certainly able to read the Italian language account of the Italian Bishops plenary, just the sort of thing to which he would pay massimo attention.  But there’s nothing in his tweets on that day or after.  He does slobber a bit over Martin’s book, now in Italian.

Look.  I’m not saying that the usual suspects have purposely avoided this interesting and newsworthy story.  I’m saying that I may have missed what they said.

Hence, I am asking for some of you readers to dig around and help us learn what they thought.

Posted in Biased Media Coverage, Francis, Liberals, Seminarians and Seminaries, Sin That Cries To Heaven, The Drill | Tagged , ,
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Bp. Morlino’s clear commencement address: “let’s be politically incorrect”

Posted on 26 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is a plentiful lack of clarity these days.  How refreshing it is when we hear or read something that is faithful, true and clear.

I offer for your attention a commencement address given at Thomas Aquinas College in California by the Extraordinary Ordinary, Most Rev. Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison.  LifeSite has a summary.

A huge attack is mounting against the teachings of Humanae vitae.  This address is timely.

The whole text is HERE.  There is a link to the AUDIO.

 

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, Emanations from Penumbras, Fr. Z KUDOS, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged , , ,
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Fr. Z’s 27th Anniversary of Ordination

Posted on 26 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Well… this is it.  I made it this far.  That’s what I say to myself when this date rolls around.

Booklet for the Mass

Many priests observe the anniversary of their ordination at this time of year. It is a common time for ordinations, probably because Ember Days were common times for ordinations and Ember Days fall during the Pentecost Octave.

It is my anniversary of ordination today, 27 years ago, by St. John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica.  I suppose that might make me a 2nd class relic.

It was not only the Feast of St. Philip Neri, 26 May, but it was also Trinity Sunday. A beautiful sunny day.

I got up that morning, ate breakfast, said my prayers, and walked alone across town to the basilica, where I entered through the main doors with the rest of the crowd. After that, however, I went to the right, to the nave near the Pietà, where we ordinands vested and waited for the Holy Father. My family members came separately from a different part of town. They had special tickets which brought them very close to the altar.

Since we were 60 in number, and from many countries, the basilica was absolutely jammed with people from all over the world who had come for the ordinations. The number of people, probably some 50k since it was packed to the gills with families and friends and whole colleges and the inevitable tourists, made the responses during the Litany of Saints flow over us palpably as we lay on the floor.

You have not experienced the Litany of Saints until you have heard it sung by that many people in a space like that.

St. Theresa of Calcutta was there, just in front of where my folks sat.

I had arranged for my grandmother, a convert to Catholicism in her 80’s, to receive Communion from the Holy Father.

I often wonder what happened to the other men with whom I was ordained. I only knew a few of them personally, since I had been at the Lateran University with them. I know that one fellow is now a bishop in Haiti. Also, it was the first year that the Iron Curtain was raised enough in Romania so that a few men were permitted out of the country to come to Rome to be ordained by the Pope. There were some Opus Dei guys ordained with us. Another was the sad, so very sad John Corapi of the SOLT group. One priest was ordained for the Archdiocese of Southwark in England. It would be great to meet with him during some trip. I reached out to a few some years ago and got a few responses. I may try again some day, perhaps by writing to their dioceses or institutes and asking that my letter be forwarded.

NB:

God doesn’t choose men who are worthy. He chooses those whom it pleases Him to choose. In regard to myself, it’s all a great mystery to me. I probably won’t get it until I die.

The sermon from the Mass. My old plugin doesn’t work for the videos, so I uploaded them to youtube.  The sermon is in Italian and the text is HERE.

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I really miss him.

Here is some excerpts from the broadcast of the ordination, which was on national television in Italy.  We have the interrogation, litany and the prayer (form).

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Imposition of hands.

Anecdote: After our ordination we lined up, new priests on one side of the side nave, all the cardinals and various prelates on the other. The Holy Father came and greeted us all.  To my shock, my boss, the late and great Augustine Card. Mayer who had joined the recessional, came across the nave and, in front of the Roman Pontiff, knelt down and asked for my blessing. It was one of several startling lessons Card. Mayer gave me.

 

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Concerning innovations

Posted on 25 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In The Heresy of Formlessness: The Roman Liturgy and Its Enemy (US HERE – UK HERE), Martin Mosebach writes of the offended sensibilities of a rock that has been shifted from its perennial, traditional, place.   It might require centuries for the rock to settle down.

There is a great deal to be said for flexible stability.  It’s the essence of Romanitas.  NB: The Latin term for revolution (always bad, in the Roman mind) is res novae… new things.  We might add: Nihil innovetur nisi quod traditum est… and non nova sed noviter.

I just read a piece by David Warren at The Catholic Thing about the death of the son of Marshall McLuhan, Eric, who had picked up his father’s baton.  And now, apparently, the grandson Andrew is doing the same.

The McLuhans were solidly Catholic and traditional:

Like father [Marshall], like son [Eric] – both, incidentally, highly traditional old-Mass Catholics, whose first resort was to their Latin missals.

“I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change,” said Marshall more than half a century ago, in a television interview with the (still living!) Canadian cultural journalist, Robert Fulford.

“But I am determined to understand what’s happening, because I don’t choose to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me. Now many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent you’re in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certain to be something I’m resolutely against, and it seems to me the best way to oppose it is to understand it, and then you know where to turn off the button.”

Consider, in passing, the use of the “rearview mirror.” As Eric would explain, it does not show things moving backwards. It shows things moving forward. It orients us not to where we were, but to where we are. Only men with the ability to “read” it can have an idea of what might hit them. For the rest, there is the dead-fish stasis, of unreflective movement in the traffic stream.

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.

Marshall McLuhan famously said “the medium is the message”.  This is why sometimes a well-placed, well-chosen photo has more impact than a 1000 words, or why McLuhan could argue that it was the genesis of the microphone and electric amplification that killed Latin and liturgy in the Church.  In 1974 he wrote in The Medium and the Light: Reflection on Religion:

Latin wasn’t the victim of Vatican II; it was done in by introducing the microphone. A lot of people, the Church hierarchy included, have been lamenting the disappearance of Latin without understanding that it was the result of introducing a piece of technology that they accepted so enthusiastically. Latin is a very ‘cool’ language, in which whispers and murmurs play an important role. A microphone, however, makes an indistinct mumble intolerable; it accentuates and intensifies the sounds of Latin to the point where it loses all of its power. But Latin wasn’t the mike’s only victim. It also made vehement preaching unbearable. For a public that finds itself immersed in a completely acoustic situation thanks to electric amplification, hi-fi speakers bring the preacher’s voice from several directions at once. So the structure of our churches were obsolesced by multi-directional amplification. The multiple speakers simply bypassed the traditional distance between preacher and audience. The two were suddenly in immediate relation with each other, which compelled the priest to face the congregation.

The microphone killed Latin, enervated preaching and paved the way for Mass “facing the people”, innovations all.  Microphones were in use long before the Council.  But their cumulative effect, with the liturgical changes, were deadly.  There are times when we should simply turn them off… and go ad orientem and use Latin.

How do people put it today?

Drop the mic.

 

 

 

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ASK FATHER: Deacons vesting in dalmatics for concelebrations

Posted on 25 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Father, I know priests are allowed to vest for Mass (chasuble, stole, etc.) together and concelebrate. It’s not a good thing, but it makes theological sense because many priests can consecrate one host as St. Thomas Aquinas says.

However, at an ordination and chrism Mass (OF), all of the Diocesan deacons vest. Why are they vested? Is there some theology behind this, a concelebration of deacons of sort, or is it a bunch of liturgical hodgepodge?

Without getting into the question of concelebration (which I think should be safe, legal and rare), deacons are deacons and deacons have their proper vestment, which is the dalmatic.

What’s with the vestimentary and liturgical stinginess when it comes to deacons?  Deacons are clerics, but NO! they can’t wear clerical clothing unless its gray or in some other way altered.   Deacons are liturgical ministers, ordained for service at the altar, but NO! they can’t put on their proper vestments.

This is absurd.  Deacons should be able to wear the dalmatic when serving at the altar.

Consider this outside of the context of concelebration.  In the traditional way of doing things, when there is a procession, as for example in the case of the upcoming Corpus Christi, priests and deacons would wear, respectively, their chasuble and dalmatics over their choir dress.  You put on an amice and you put on the chasuble or dalmatic and off you go!

Let’s not be pusillanimous when it comes to our deacons.

As far as deacons at a concelebration are concerned, if they don’t have specific liturgical roles as sacred ministers, then in the Roman way of doing things they should – just as priests or bishops would – attend in their proper choir dress, which is cassock and surplice with biretta.  They would need a stole (worn in the manner of a deacon) if they are going to receive Holy Communion.    Priests and deacons don’t wear their stoles if they are in choir, unless they are going to have something to do with the Blessed Sacrament (e.g., receive or distribute or translate). This is not to pick on deacons, of course.  As I wrote, that would apply to priests and bishops as well: proper choir dress.

We must bring back these distinctions of roles as sacred ministers in the liturgical action and as otherwise “full, conscious and active” participants in the action.  Both modes of participation have their proper place in the sanctuary and their proper garb.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged ,
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ASK FATHER: How do we get the TLM where we are?

Posted on 25 May 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I hope you can help. How do I approach my Bishop in ___ to have us have a TLM. I run from one church to another just before Consecration. Thank you.

I am puzzled as to why you would run from one church to another like that.  Back in the day, people would hurry from church to church in Rome for the moment of the elevation.  There were even special pieces of music written for the elevation.  Then off they’d go to another church for the elevation.

But, to the real point.

Please take this to heart: Don’t approach the bishop for the TLM except as a last resort.

Always… always… always… work with a friendly priest who is willing and able to celebrate the TLM for you, especially pastors of parishes.

According to the present legislation, pastors of parishes are the one’s who decide now.

Another point: One person asking for the TLM isn’t very compelling.  A lot of people asking for it is much more convincing.   Get organized.

An important point: Be willing to sacrifice your time and money to be there, open doors, set things up, tidy up after, buy vestments and books and other useful objects, provide Father with necessary items, etc.  You can’t just expect – as so many do – everything to be done for you for free.

A really important point: Be diplomatic while being persistent.

A seriously important point: Be involved in the other things that the parish does.  Make yourselves indispensable to the pastor and his efforts for the whole parish.  Always be ready to volunteer.  Be the first one’s up and the last one’s there.

And here’s an Elevation Sonata by the great Domenico Zipoli, SJ. Yes… SJ. He was a musician missionary of the Baroque era in the reductions of Paraguay.

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