#ASonnetADay – 57. “Being your slave, what should I do but tend…”

Posted on 7 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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IMPORTANT VIDEO: “Black Lives Matter Exposed” – tied to international Communism, Palestinian terrorists, founded by Lesbian Marxists

Posted on 7 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

What is “Black Lives Matter”?

Black Lives Matter Exposed from Choose Freedom on Vimeo.

Friends… start thinking about self-defense.

Have a plan.

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#ASonnetADay – 56. “Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said…”

Posted on 6 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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Luminous Fr. Z Kudos to @Stpatricksoho

Posted on 6 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A couple times when I have been in London, I’ve stayed at St Patrick’s on Soho Square.  It’s a really interesting parish in a really strange place and they have really great programs.  No… really. (How interesting?  Fulton Sheen lived there …I used his confessional).

For example, they house the homeless, have an SOS hotline, and they promote Eucharistic devotion.

Speaking of Eucharistic devotion they also feed the hungry.

Luminous Fr. Z kudos to my friend Fr. Sherbrooke and his team. Outstanding.

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Complete horror show of public schools. Truly frightening.

Posted on 6 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This afternoon I listen in total horror about the Milwaukee public school system.  The Rush of Milwaukee and Madison, Vicki McKenna (one of the best talk show hosts anywhere) had on a rep from MacIver Institute: The Free Market Voice for Wisconsin who talked about the state of public schools.

I knew it was bad.

I didn’t imagine it was this bad.

Sample…

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

In this video we learn that in two major high schools in Milwaukee had only one student proficient in math, none in English.

This is what we are up against.

A couple more years of this and the Biden voters… rather… Harris voters will be in control by means of raw violence.

That’s the plan.

Put that together with the Dem Party’s sacrament of abortion and Hell will be unleashed in ways hitherto unimagined.

We have to defund schools, not cops  We’d be better off without them.

Listen to Vicki McKenna in her first hour today when the podcast is available.

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ONLINE COURSE for learning Latin responses for the Traditional Latin Mass. 5-30 October. NOW.

Posted on 6 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

People often ask me what they can do to help spread celebrations of the TLM or obtain them where they are.

One way is to make sure you yourself are trained in the role that you can fulfill.

Priests have their role.  Servers have theirs.    If men and boys put their backs into learn the responses before they are called upon to make them… well… that just makes sense, right?

“But… but… Latin?!!?  It’s toooo haaard!”

[CUT TO SHOT OF URINE SPREADING AROUND SHOE]

Keeping in mind that little boys learned the LATIN responses for centuries, don’t even think of suggesting to me that grown men can’t learn them.

At Romanitas Press Mr Mr Louis Tofari will lead – via ZOOM – lessons for men and boys on how to learn the the responses for the Traditional Latin Mass.  The course is 4 weeks long.

The 12, 45-minute “classes” will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – starting at 1100h EST.

The cost is $90 per person.  The materials cost $8.25 total.  There is group pricing, though the same computer or phone, etc.

More information HERE and HERE.
SUBSCRIBE, click HERE.

The job that takes the longest to finish is the one that is never started. –

Fathers!  Men!  Don’t be pants wetters.

LEARN YOUR LATIN RESPONSES!

YOU CAN DO IT!

SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM!

 

 

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A curious feature of #FratelliTutti – self-referential

Posted on 6 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today I saw a fascinating tweet from my friend Bree Dail.   She reposted “metadata” someone posted about citations in Francis’ new  Tutti Frutti… Frutti Fratelli… Fratelli Tutti….  Follow for the original by Catholic librarian Sharon Kabel.

Citations in papal documents are of central importance.

As I explained when Francis changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church, …

… something doesn’t become true by the fact of it being put into the CCC. It is put into the CCC because it can be demonstrated to be true. Look at pages in your CCC and you will find lots of footnotes with pertinent references to Scripture and the Fathers and Councils, etc. Look at CCC 2267 and you find one note, referring to a statement that Francis’ himself made in a speech a short while before.   That’s it.   It’s a bit self-referential. Of course it would be challenging to find references in Scripture or the Fathers or Councils etc. to uphold the position asserted in 2267, for, using all those, the Church has always upheld that capital punishment is admissible in some cases.

Self-referential.

Francis cites himself over and against nearly 2000 years of reflection on the death penalty, including Christ upholding Pilate’s authority to kill Him.

Just because something is stated in a papal document, the fact of the statement’s presence in the document doesn’t make it true.   Popes know how to teach definitively and infallibly.  So, when they don’t have recourse to that level of certainty, which they won’t go anywhere near without a vast foundation, they have to persuade.   For our part, we as Catholics have to listen carefully and with a measure of docility.  But we aren’t obliged to be stupid.

That said… here is a graphic of the metadata of citations in  Tutti Frutti… Frutti Fratelli… Fratelli Tutti.  You should be able to click that and get the large version in a new tab.  Kabel tracks 288 non-Scripture citations, some used more than once.

For those of who can’t… see that GREEN bar on the LEFT?  That is Francis citing HIMSELF.  All other bars, are other sources, from Paul Ricoeur to Karl Rahner to John Paul II (fewer than 20 times in a document of 43000 words!), to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

This is, frankly, shocking.

It is as if 2013 were Year Zero.

We have to grant that Popes tend to cite themselves.  That’s because they have often gone over the same ground in other documents.  Then we look at those previous documents to see what their foundations were.   We follow the thread through the labyrinth, as it were.

Does the fact of citing oneself delegitimize the encyclical?  No, I cited myself, above.  Hence, I am happy to accept that sometimes writers quote themselves.

When the signers (who are the official authors) of documents put their signatures to something that is hugely self-referential, there could be a problem.  After all while we scratch our heads and wonder … gratis asseritur, gratis negatur?

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7 October 2020:Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary – MASS FOR BENEFACTORS

Posted on 6 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I will say Mass for the intention of my benefactors – I keep track of you – on Saturday, 7 October at Noon CDT (Deo volente).  Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

While I remember benefactors at every Mass, living and deceased at the respective Memento in the Roman Canon, I regularly say Mass for the intention of my benefactors.  It is my duty, honor and pleasure to do so.

Some of you subscribe to give a monthly donation via PayPal or Continue to Give.  Some of send occasional donations through those means or sometimes via snail mail to me P.O. Box (address on the sidebar – do a CTR_F for “Struck” to find it fast.   Others send items from my wish list.

It is all greatly appreciated. When something comes in, it’s a real moral boost.

There are some lean days, however, for the monthly subscription option.  Today is one of them.

Also, could I – please – remind you to use my link to enter Amazon when shopping online?  Links for these USA and the UK are on the sidebar.

I cannot see what you purchase, but I get a small percentage of each purchase.  This is a major issue for me.  So, thanks in advance.

I’m also singing for my supper by posting #ASonnetADay.

So, please consider subscribing to send a monthly donation. That way I have steady income I can plan on, and you wind up regularly on my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I periodically say Holy Mass. I even added “Sonnet Lover” option.


Some options



 

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REVIEW: The Lighthouse by Michael D. O’Brien

Posted on 6 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was, I believe, on Prince Edward Island when the news that Mother Theresa had died. When I heard of that the Princess of Wales had died I was in bar having something to eat in, I believe, Glace Bay of Cape Breton Island.  Little did I know that I would be involved with Ham Radio 20 years later.

In 1997 I helped to move a large boat from Halifax to Lake Superior, going around Cape Breton, to PEI, around the Gaspé Peninsula and down the St. Lawrence Seaway.  Of the group, I spoke some French so there were a couple times when, putting in for the night somewhere along those rugged coasts I bargained with some fisherman for fresh catches or we found the places that handled incoming sea critters, and we had great meals on the boat.   A couple times I shocked priests but stopping at their rectories and asking to say Mass.  They looked at me, bemused, as if I had three heads. There was one day of particularly dangerous water and wind and we had to find a cove or bay fast.  I learned additional respect for those who work on those waters.  For more than one reason, has Eternal Father Strong To Save long been one of those hymns that closes my throat.

Yesterday I read Michael D. O’Brien’s newest book, The Lighthouse.

US HERE – UK HERE

Once again, O’Brien explores the theme of fathers and sons, in our contemporary time of fragmented families.  The main character comes from a broken family and, due to the timely influence of a few good men in his childhood, manages to make it into adulthood as a good, upright man.  By fate he winds up working at a lighthouse off the coast of Cape Breton for the old keeper, whom he eventually replaces, thus beginning physically a his interiorly solitary life.

The theme of solitude, and the eventual opening up of his world through seemingly random contacts with people who come to his tiny rock island, is especially poignant right now, in this time of COVID-1984.  O’Brien has a mystical streak.  Perhaps he sensed it coming and wrote a book to help people with their isolation.

O’Brien’s books are profoundly Catholic, though Catholic stuff is often not obviously at play.  There are constant leitmotifs of grace, sacrifice, and redemption throughout, taking more or less subtle turns.  In The Lighthouse you sense early on the inexorable end, but he also throws you some curves.

Also, I sense that O’Brien may have found an editor!  Some of his earlier works were really long, very much in need of trimming.  This work was compact, selective, without being hasty.  O’Brien carefully tied up all his loose ends by the time we arrive at the finish. Even seemingly minor characters are revealed to have played part that loom with significance before the last page is turned.

I read it in one go.  I didn’t want to stop.  And I was content at the conclusion, as the main character would be content with the ending of a season, or the carving of a wood figure, and the beginning of something else.

This is a peaceful book even though it works through inner turmoils.

Reading The Lighthouse drove me to look at some maps online, and photos, of Cape Breton.  I tried to spot some things from that excursion in 1997.  I found a few.  O’Brien says that his lighthouse and the nearby port are fictional.  I wonder, however, if perhaps he wasn’t a little influenced by the fact of Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine with its tiny town of Fatima.

Oh yes… my Kindle died in the last chapter.

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An introduction to #FratelliTutti by @DrSamuelGregg

Posted on 5 October 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

To all the people who are asking me to comment on Tutti Frutti… Frutti Fratelli… Fratelli Tutti… I suggest my friend Sam Gregg’s solid introduction to the document at Catholic World Report.

A few of his comments follow.  And, while Gregg is rightly critical of some of the clearly goofy stuff in the encyclical – goofy and, I think, dangerous in one point – he also states that there are good elements.

Thus, Gregg…

[…]

Despite its length, there’s little in this text that we have not heard Francis say before in one form or another.

[…]

Gregg is an expert on economics.

Economic strawmen

Also insufficient—and, alas, this has characterized Francis’s pontificate from its very beginning—is Fratelli Tutti’s treatment of economic questions. It seems that, no matter how many people (not all of whom can be characterized as fiscal conservatives) highlight the economic caricatures that roam throughout Francis’s documents, a pontificate which prides itself on its commitment to dialogue just isn’t interested in a serious conversation about economic issues outside a very limited circle.

[…]

There is plenty of room for constructive debate among Catholics about the role of the government, law, central banks, and other state institutions in the economy. Indeed, it’s never been my impression that Francis is hell-bent on a massive increase in state intervention to address any number of economic challenges. But the endless invocation of economic strawmen in papal documents and by prominent figures associated with Francis’s pontificate isn’t likely to create any confidence that most of those who have guided this pontificate’s reflections on economic matters have a genuine interest in any real dialogue with anyone who doesn’t fit on the spectrum between left-wing populists and your run-of-the-mill neo-Keynesian.

[…]

The dangerous point (my words):

Saint Francis and the Sultan

[…]

Fratelli Tutti begins by invoking Saint Francis’s famous encounter with Sultan Malik-el-Kamil in Egypt in the midst of the Fifth Crusade. It states that the saint told his followers that “if they found themselves ‘among the Saracens and other nonbelievers,’ without renouncing their own identity they were not to ‘engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake’.” Pope Francis then adds: “We are impressed that some eight hundred years ago Saint Francis urged that all forms of hostility or conflict be avoided and that a humble and fraternal ‘subjection’ be shown to those who did not share his faith”

[…]

Francis of Assisi is portrayed as engaging in some sort of interfaith prayer breakfast.  In fact, Francis went to the Sultan to covert him… knowing full well that he could be martyred.  The saint engaged in exactly what his namesake says we must not do.  Read frequent commentator here Fr. Thompson’s book on Francis.   Francis of Assisi: A New Biography US HERE – UK HERE  I have a post HERE about the meeting between Francis and the Sultan.  HERE

When a figure who has huge megaphone, world-wide attention, and who claims a super high moral ground and authority completely distorts the facts of an historical event he risks not only his own authority but respect for the office he holds.  That’s dangerous.

Finally, Gregg observes…

The more, however, that I read through Fratelli Tutti, the more I had the sense that this encyclical wasn’t just an elongated summation and elaboration of the pope’s thought. It also impressed me as a type of valediction for his papacy—one that may well have said all that it has to say. This doesn’t mean that Francis’s pontificate is drawing to a close. But Fratelli Tutti does bear all the marks of a capstone document. Whether it leaves a lasting impression on the Catholic Church is anyone’s guess.

I take you now back to the opening of Gregg’s piece:

One of the first things that will strike readers of Pope Francis’s new social encyclical Fratelli Tutti is its sheer length. At about 43,000 words in English (including footnotes), that’s more than the Book of Genesis (32,046) and three times the size of the Gospel of John (15,635).

Will Fratelli leave a lasting impression?   It is possible that it will on the tens of people who are patient enough to read all of it.   The sheer length of this document lessens the likelihood that it will make a big impact.    Alas, this is part and parcel of the age of word processors and writing in the vernacular.  Once upon a time, encyclicals were tight and focused and people read them.  Then things changed and they got longer and longer and longer.  Furthermore, the desire to say everything often results in saying everything inadequately.

Earlier today, I posted a serious misuse of St. Augustine in a footnote in Francis’ denial of the possibility of “just war”.  Frankly, Francis’ language in Tutti is so hedged that he does NOT in fact make any sort of definitive statement against “just war”.  For my part, his credibility is lessened with using Augustine that way.

One of the people who asked me if I would comment on Fratelli added with a twist of wry humor, “I hope you read it so I don’t have to.”

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