Wherein Fr. Z endorses Fr. Cipolla’s call to ACTION!

Posted on 14 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

action-item-buttonThough some of the Rorate folks have waged a bit of a war on me, I have tried occasionally to acknowledge their good contributions.  I was sent a link to one contribution which I would like to endorse.

Fr. Richard Cipolla, pastor of St. Mary’s in Norwalk, CT (a beautiful church and wonderful parish), delivered a “¡Hagan lío!” sermon for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost.  The whole text is HERE.  I’ll peel back the outer layers and…:

[…]

Last week we celebrated, with little fanfare, the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, the magna carta of the Catholic liturgy.  [I like “Emancipation Proclamation”.] The document itself is flawed, with its artificial creation of two forms of the Roman Rite, [distinction: juridical creation.  SP doesn’t solve the theological and historical debate of whether or not the newer and the tradition rites are really the same rite.  I don’t think they are, btw.] with its talk of a coetus, a group of the faithful who go to the bishop or pastor and ask for the Traditional Roman rite.  And the pastor, including the bishop, it presumes will respond to this request with alacrity and charity.  This has not happened. [Alas, no.  But did we expect them to?]  But even though the document is flawed,  what it did cannot be underestimated. It freed the Church from the terrible bonds of a deliberately modern liturgy imposed in a most un-Catholic way a liturgical form based on personal rationalizations  that claimed to be based on scholarship. [One might point at the deliberate violation of the handful of mandates of the Council Fathers in Sacrosanctum Concilium, the cutting up and pasting together of prayers resulting a huge changes in their content, creations such as the 2nd Eucharistic Prayer, etc.] Let us be clear about this once and for all.  Because I find out that the offertory prayers are Gallican and did not come into the Mass until after the first millennium has absolutely nothing to do with the reality and validity of the liturgical life of the Church and those particular prayers.   Let us be clear about this.  Scholarship is relative to time.  [ANALOGY ALERT] And who would prefer a runty tomato plant about which we have a full DNA printout  to a plant that is held up by stakes on which is hanging ripe tomatoes to be savored with basil and olive oil?

Dare we say that the Traditional Roman Mass that developed from the early Church through Gregory the Great, through what historians call the Dark Ages, through the flowering of what we call the Middle Ages, even to the eve of the discovery of the New World, is one of the bedrocks of Western civilization? [YES! We so dare.]  The greatest composers, including the anonymous composers of the chant and the composers of polyphony like Byrd, Victoria and Palestrina, Bach, Mozart and even Stravinsky:   all this music inspired by the Traditional Roman Rite and written to make the Rite sing for the praise of almighty God.  The Traditional Roman Rite is certainly the bedrock of the Catholic Church,  and its suppression in the 1960s will be written about in Church history in the same way as the Babylonian exile.

But there is more. The Orthodox believe that the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and the Liturgy of St. Basil are God-given.  And I would dare to say that the same is true for the Traditional Roman Mass.  It is God-given. [SIMILE ALERT] It developed in the womb of the Church like a pearl in an oyster.  It has nothing to do with committees or consilia appointed to invent a new form of Mass that has relevance only to those who wrote the texts, whether on a napkin in Trastevere or in an office in the Vatican. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]  The irrelevancy of the Catholic Church is this post-modern age is in great part due to the irrelevancy of a liturgy invented in the modern age and now already obsolete in the post-modern age of freedom defined by the naked self. [I’ve been writing this for years.  How we worship God, in our sacred liturgical worship, is an essential element of our identity as Catholics.  We are our rites.  They form us and tell us who we are.  Without properly ordered worship, we don’t know who we are. Couple that with ignorance of or the defiance of the content of the Faith, and we wind up with flocks who have no idea who they are as Catholics, who can’t explain themselves, what they believe.  If that is what we have become, then why should anyone listen to us?  We will be easily driven from the public square, and rightly so.  This is yet another reason why Summorum Pontificum is so imporant.]

And yet.  And yet. We cannot retreat from the sad situation in the liturgical life of the Church and therefore in the very life of the Church.  [“Never give up!  Never surrender!”] We must not hunker down and do our own traditional thing and consign everyone one else to some terrible boring and bland version of the Eucharistic liturgy and thank God that we celebrate the real thing.  We must evangelize, my friends.[Do I hear an “Amen!”?] We start with ourselves and make sure we are in spiritual shape to do battle, spiritual shape, not personal shape or aesthetic shape.  Spiritual shape  And to get into spiritual shape requires hard work, work that demands painful spiritual pushups every day that causes some pain. [Spend time in review of the content of your Faith (quae and qua).  Review your state in life.  Examine your conscience. GO TO CONFESSION!]

You young men who serve at the altar, you young men who come to this Mass, dare you[do you dare?] come to the aid of not merely the Catholic Church, [the Catholic only] and I say “merely” in a purely grammatical and stylistic sense, but to civilization itself, a civilization that has been lobotomizied  with no memory of its roots and its past?  Will you buy into this self-centered culture that keeps everything at arm’s length except the truth about oneself and one’s relationship to the truth, a truth that is a person, Jesus Christ, and his Church founded to make all things new? [NB]Will you allow priests and bishops who have failed to take their faith seriously and so have scandalize you make you fall into a cynicism that will make your life devoid of real faith and prevent you from even considering a vocation to the priesthood or the monastic life?

And you young women here:  dare you embrace the challenge of a religious life that was and should be the heart of the Church, dare you to be Mother Courage in the face of the spineless posturing of your generation? [That probably is not a reference to Brecht.] Dare you to have the zeal and faith of St. Birgitta, St. Catherine of Siena, both of whom who told off Popes when he was wrong.  Dare you in whatever vocation you decide upon to be a source of faith and joy in this unbelieving world?

And you members of the Hispanic community:  dare you give of your real gifts that include a love of celebration of our precious Catholic faith to the whole parish and to the whole Church?  Dare you encourage our Hispanic community to come to this Mass and see where the basis of the traditions you love are founded, to come to understand the freedom that the Traditional Roman Rite gives to each of us, that frees us from the burden of language?  Dare you become leaders of the recovery of Catholic Tradition?

And to all of you here, married with children, do you dare to take the next step, the step after coming to this Mass at St Mary’s in Norwalk because you see its power and reality, and take the next step in making this parish a powerhouse for the Lord that will overwhelm jaded Catholics and prideful secularists with the joy of knowing that God loves us so much that he died for us so that we may be saved from eternal death?

The answer to these questions for each of us here is the key to the future, not only the future of this parish but also the very future of the Church.  Together we look forward to the time when the Traditional Roman Mass will once again be the Ordinary Form of the Mass.  May this be the will of God.

Fr. Z kudos to Fr. Cipolla.

Could the Extraordinary Form become the Ordinary Form again?

I won’t see the answer to that question in my lifetime… probably.

Wellll….who knows, given the times are are in and the fact that in finem citius.

I have friends who argue that, as the identity-squishy mainstream Church collapses, the only thing left will be the traditional leaning Church.  For example, I recently read that a large percentage of ordinations in France this year were for traditional groups, which puts the traditional form of our sacred worship and all that goes with it back firmly on the playing field there.

Way back when I had many an opportunity to converse with then-Cardinal Ratzinger.  He thought there should be a restoration of the traditional Roman Rite to help kickstart the organic development of liturgy that had been interrupted with the artificial imposition of the Novus Ordo.  At the time, I gleaned that he thought that a tertium quid would emerge from the dialogue of the rites, with the newer dominating, taking elements of the older and being thereby corrected.  As time passed, however, I got the idea that he switched his position.  The older, traditional form would be revitalized by elements of the newer.

One way or another, we need a wide-spread restoration of the older, traditional Roman Rite.  Let it be side by side with the newer, Novus Ordo.  What will happen?  First, that organic development will start with the “mutual enrichment”.  It is already happening.  I think that many priests who celebrate the older form of Mass have brought some good insights to tradition and to their own ars celebrandi from our collective experience of the newer form for the last decades.  I know any number of priests who, having learned how to say the older form, never after say the Novus Ordo in the same way as they did before.

Also, let “market forces” prevail.  If people have a choice, let them choose. Why would that be bad?  I suspect that a lot of people would, over time, choose the traditional Rite.  That same suspicion terrifies liberals.  Thus, libs can’t allow people to have a real choice. They will repress tradition whenever they can because they are afraid.

Fr. Cipolla is right to call people to action.   I would add what I have written in rants on other occasions.

It’s ‘grind it out’ time.

I am getting some defeatist email.

Those of you who want the older form of the liturgy, and all that comes with it, should…

1) Work with sweat and money to make it happen. If you thought you worked hard before?   Been at this a long time?  HAH!  Get to work!  “Oooo! It’s tooo haaard!”  BOO HOO!

2) Get involved with all the works of charity that your parishes or groups sponsor. Make a strong showing. Make your presence known. If Pope Francis wants a Church for the poor, then we respond, “OORAH!!” The “traditionalist” will be second-to-none in getting involved.  “Dear Father… you can count on the ‘Stable Group of TLM Petitioners-For-By-Now-Several-Months” to help with the collection of clothing for the poor!  Tell us what you need!”

3) Pray and fast and give alms. Think you have been doing that? HAH!  Think again.  If you love, you can do more.

4) Form up and get organized.  You can do this.  Find like minded people and get that request for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum together, how you will raise the money to help buy the stuff the parish will need and DO IT.  Make a plan. Find people. Execute!

5) Get your ego and your own petty little personal interpretations and preferences of how Father ought to wiggle his pinky at the third word out of the way.  It is team-work time.  If we don’t sacrifice individually, we will stay divided and we won’t achieve our objectives.

Do you want this?  Do you?  Or, when you don’t get what you want handed to you, are you going to whine about it and then blame others?

The legislation is in place.  The young priests and seminarians are dying to get into this stuff.  Give them something to do.

And to those of you will you blurt out “But Father! But Father!… I don’t like your militaristic imagery”… [LOL! Like this loopy attack HERE] in order to derail the entry, here’s a new image from your own back yard.

Pope Benedict gave you, boys and girls, over the course of his 8 years, a beautiful new bicycle!  He gave you a direction, some encouragement, a snow cone, and a running push.  Now, take off the training wheels and RIDE THE DAMN BIKE!

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Be The Maquis, Brick by Brick, Olive Branches, Our Catholic Identity, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged ,
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WDTPRS – 15th Ordinary Sunday: To be good lenses and reflectors of Christ’s light we must be clean

Posted on 14 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This week we have a good example of a dramatic difference Obsolete ICEL version and the Latin with the Current ICEL.

The Collect or Opening Prayer for this 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is also used in the Extraordinary Form on the 3rd Sunday after Easter.   In the Ordinary Form it is also the Collect for Monday of the 3rd week of Easter season.

Today’s prayer goes back at least to the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary.  My trusty edition of St. Pius V’s 1570 Missale Romanum, and the subsequent 1962MR, shows the insertion of a word – “in viam possint redire iustitiae” – not present in the more ancient Collect in the Gelasian (though it was present in some other ancient sacramentaries).

The Ordinary Form editions of the Missal drop iustitiae.

Stylistically, this is a snappy prayer, with nice alliteration and a powerful rhythm in the last line.

COLLECT – (2002MR):

Deus, qui errantibus, ut in viam possint redire,
veritatis tuae lumen ostendis,
da cunctis qui christiana professione censentur,
et illa respuere, quae huic inimica sunt nomini,
et ea quae sunt apta sectari.

It is hard to know what the sources influencing this prayer might be.  Certainly we can find John 14, which we shall see below. Can we find in the Collect a trace of the Roman statesman Cassiodorus (+c. 585 – consul in 514 and then Boethius’ successor as magister officiorum under the Ostrogothic King Theodoric)?  Cassiodorus wrote, “Sed potest aliquis et in via peccatorum esse et ad viam iterum redire iustitiae? But can someone be both in the way of sins and also return again to the way of justice?” (cf. Exp. Ps. 13).  Otherwise we might infer a touch of Milan’s mighty Bishop Ambrose (+397) or even more probably Augustine of Hippo (+430) who use similar patterns of words.   Note especially the presence of “iustitiae” in Cassiodorus’ phrase.

The thorough Lewis & Short Dictionary informs you that the verb censeo, though quite complicated, is primarily “to estimate, weigh, value, appreciate”.  It is used for, “to be of an opinion” and “to think, consider” something.  There is a special construction with censeo, censeri aliqua re meaning “to be appreciated, distinguished, celebrated for some quality”, “to be known by something.”   This explains the passive form in our Collect with the ablative christiana professione.   Getting this into English requires some fancy footwork.   Censeo here retains a meaning of “be counted among” (think of English “census”).  We can get the right concept in “distinguished” since it can mean both “be counted as” as well as “be celebrated for some quality.”

Christianus, a, um is an adjective with the noun professio. When moving from Latin to English sometimes we need to pull adjectives apart and rephrase them.  We could say “Christian profession”, but what this adjectival construction means here is “profession of Christ.”  We find the same problem in phrases such as oratio dominica, which is literally “the Lordly Prayer” in English comes out more smoothly as “the Lord’s Prayer”.

Respuo literally means “to spit out” and thus “reject, repel, refuse”.  The fundamental meaning gives a strong enough image for me to say “strongly reject”.  The deponent verb sector indicates “to follow continually or eagerly” in either a good or bad sense.  Sector is used, for example, to describe a group of followers who accompanied ancient philosophers, which is where we get the word “sect”.   The word via needs our attention.  It means, “a way, method, mode, manner, fashion, etc., of doing any thing, course”.   There is a moral content to via as well, “the right way, the true method, mode, or manner”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:

O God, who does show the light of Your truth to the erring
so that they might be able to return unto the way,
grant to all who are distinguished by their profession of Christ
that they may both strongly reject those things which are inimical to this name of Christian
and follow eagerly the things which are suited to it.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

God our Father,
your light of truth
guides us to the way of Christ.
May all who follow him
reject what is contrary to the gospel.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

O God, who show the light of your truth
to those who go astray,
so that they may return to the right path,
give all who for the faith they profess
are accounted Christians
the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ
and to strive after all that does it honor.

Some initial associations to my mind.

Ancient philosophers (the word comes from Greek for “lover of wisdom”) would walk about in public in their sandals and draped toga-like robes.  Thinker theologian/philosophers such as Aristotle were called “Peripatetics” from their practice of walking about (Greek peripatein) under covered walkways of the Lyceum in Athens (Greek peripatos) while teaching.  Their disciples would swarm around them, hanging on their words, debating with them, learning how to think and to reason.  They would discuss the deeper questions the human mind and heart inevitably faces and in this they were theologians.   We must be careful not to impose the modern divorce of philosophy and theology on the ancients.  In ancient Christian mosaics Christ is sometimes depicted wearing philosopher’s robes, his hand raised in the ancient teaching gesture.  He is Wisdom incarnate and the perfect Teacher.   He is the one from whom we should learn about God and about ourselves.  After Christ Himself, we also have His Church, who is Mater et Magistra – Mother and Teacher.  Sometimes a small Christ is seated upon His Mother as if she were His teaching chair, or cathedral.  When so depicted, Mary is called Seat of Wisdom.

I am also reminded of the very first lines of the Divine Comedy by the exiled Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (+1321) who was heavily shaped and influenced by Aristotle’s Ethics and the Christianized Platonic philosophy mediated through Boethius (+525) and St. Thomas Aquinas (+1274).

The Inferno begins:

Midway in the journey of our life
I came to myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
Ah, how hard it is to tell
the nature of that wood, savage, dense, and harsh –
the very thought of it renews my fear!
It is so bitter death is hardly more so.

Dante, the protagonist of his own poem, is describing a fictional self.  His poetic persona, in the middle of his life (35 years old), is mired in sin and irrational behavior.  He has strayed from the straight path of the life of reason and is in the “dark wood”.  The life of persistent sin is a life without true reason, for human reason when left to itself without the light of grace is crippled.  Dante likens his confused state to death.  He must journey through hell and back.  He then experiences the purification of purgatory in order to come back to the life of virtue and reason.  In the course of the three-part Comedy he finds the proper road back to light and Truth and reason through the intercession of Christ-like figures such as Beatrice and Lucy and then through Christ Himself.

In the Comedy, Dante recovers the use of reason.  His whole person is reintegrated through the light of Truth.

Don’t we often describe people who are ignorant, confused or obtuse as “wandering around in the dark”?  This applies also to persistent sinners.

By their choices and resistance to God’s grace they have lost the light of Truth.  God’s grace makes it possible for us to find our way back into the right path, no matter how far off of it we have strayed in the past.

When we sin, we break our relationship with Christ.  If in laziness we should refuse to know Him better (every day), we lose sight of ourselves and our neighbor.

The Second Vatican Council teaches that Christ came into the world to reveal man more fully to himself (GS 22).

Christ, the incarnate Word, tells us in the person of the Apostle St. Thomas:

“‘Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way (via) where I am going.’  Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way (via)?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way (via), and the truth (veritas), and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him…. He who has seen me has seen the Father’” (cf. John 14:1-6 RSV).

We have not only the words and deeds of Christ in Scripture, but God has given us in the Catholic Church herself a secure marked path to follow towards happiness.

We can stray off this sure path either to the right or to the left.  Either way, too far right or too far left, we wind up in the ditch in the dark.

When we have gone off the proper path and have left Christ, the Way, we can return to our senses again and be reconciled with God and neighbor through the sacraments entrusted to the Catholic Church, especially in the Sacrament of Penance and then good reception of Christ in Holy Communion.

We Catholics, who dare publicly to take Christ’s name to ourselves, need to stand up and be counted (censentur) in public and on public issues and even sharply refuse (respuere) whatever is contrary to Christ’s Name.

In what we say and do other people ought to be able to see Christ’s light reflected and focused in the details of our individual vocations.

To be good lenses and reflectors of Christ’s light, we must be clean.  When we know ourselves not to be so, we are obliged as soon as possible to seek cleansing so that we can be saved and be of benefit for the salvation of others.

GO TO CONFESSION!

We must also practice spiritual works of mercy, bringing the light of truth to the ignorant or those who persist in darkness either through their own fault or no fault of their own.

QUAERITUR: When people look at us and listen to us, do they see a black, light-extinguishing hole where a beautiful image of God should be?

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, WDTPRS | Tagged ,
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Jesuit @AntonioSpadaro, Jesuit-run Civiltà Cattolica attacks Americans

Posted on 14 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

17_07_14_screenshot_CiviltaBy now you may have seen the attack on Americans – conservative Americans and traditional Catholic Americans – in what some people consider a semi-official publication of the Holy See Civiltà Cattolica (now aka Inciviltà cattolica).  The title in English: “Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism in the USA: A surprising ecumenism”

“Integralism” is perhaps not used as much in these USA as it is in Europe.  This term is a dog whistle.  In somewhat broad terms, it can be used generically for the position that one’s religious beliefs should dictate their politics and social involvement.  However, “integralism” developed in a specific context of conflict between Catholicism and modernity in Europe.  In France and Italy, the haters of Catholic tradition often refer to anyone who wants traditional worship as being “intégriste”.  It is flung like an insult.  For a quick and fascinating lesson on “integralism”, and what Spadaro is calling conservative Americans, head over to the Wikipedia article.  HERE Wiki is perfect as a source, but it gives you a rapid entry point.

The Holy See’s newspaper, the increasingly irrelevant L’Osservatore Romano, reprinted the anti-American attack with the title: “Ecumenism of Hate”

Again, this term “integralism” is a dog whistle: the troops are being called up to launch their own campaign of intolerant repression of anyone who might stand in the way of their agenda.

The vicious attack piece is penned by Fr Antonio Spadaro, the Jesuit editor of Inciviltà cattolica.  Fr. Spadaro is so interested in the life and works of Pier Vittorio Tondelli that he created his own website about him (HERE).

The co-author of the article, with the Jesuit who is dedicated to the study of Tondelli, is Marcelo Figueroa, a Presbyterian pastor, who is the editor of the Argentinian edition of L’Osservatore Romano.  He once had a TV show in Argentina with the future-Pope Francis and a rabbi.

There are going to be good responses to this attack on Americans and our nation by the Argentinian Presbyterian and the Jesuit expert on Tondelli. We should watch for them.

One response has come from the clear-eyed Phil Lawler, writing at Catholic Culture. HERE

A taste… but read the whole thing there (my emphases, comments):

With a harsh denunciation of American conservatism, published in the semi-official Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica, the Vatican has plunged headlong into a partisan debate in a society that it clearly does not understand, potentially alienating (or should I say, further alienating) the Americans most inclined to favor the influence of the Church.

Why? Why this bitter attack on the natural allies of traditional Catholic teachings? Is it because the most influential figures at the Vatican today actually want to move away from those traditional teachings, and form a new alliance with modernity?  [To ask such a question suggests that the answer is already discerned.]

The authors of the essay claim to embrace ecumenism, but they have nothing but disdain for the coalition formed by Catholics and Evangelical Protestants in the United States. They scold American conservatives for seeing world events as a struggle of good against evil, yet they clearly convey the impression that they see American conservativism as an evil influence that must be defeated.  [From their moral superiority they chastise these USA and a huge majority of its population who do, in fact, see some conflicts in terms of Good and Evil, and they smugly call it “Manichean”.  I might respond to the Italian Jesuit that, were it not for the “Manichean” view we Americans are supposed to have, he would perhaps have been raised speaking German or Russian. I might respond to him and to his Argentinian Presbyterian co-author, that Italy and Argentina never met a dictator that they didn’t like.  Given their track national track records and that of the fundamentalist Americans….]

While they are quick to pronounce judgment on American politicians, the two authors betray an appalling ignorance of the American scene. The authors toss Presidents Nixon (a Quaker), Reagan, Bush, and Trump into the same religious classification, suggesting that they were all motivated by “fundamentalist” principles. An ordinary American, reading this account, would be surprised to see the authors’ preoccupation with the late Rev. Rousas Rushdoony [you may be saying “Who?” He was a Calvinst who was an important figure in the evolution of the “homeschool” movement.  Bringing him up is probably a way of attacking also homeschoolers, who terrify libs because they are not being formed by state-run schools and the “values” they inculcate.] and the Church Militant web site: hardly major figures in the formation of American public opinion. [Church Militant could have been brought in as an example of Catholic traditionalism.] The essay is written from the perspective of people who draw their information about America from left-wing journals rather than from practical experience.  [Do you hear the dog whistles?  This is a signal to attack homeschoolers and traditionalists, groups which often overlap.]

The central thesis of the Civilta Cattolica essay is that American conservatives have developed an ideology, based on fundamentalist Protestant beliefs, that sees the US as morally righteous, with other people as enemies and thus justifies conflict and exploitation. Again and again the authors describe this attitude as “Manichean;” they insist on the need to “fight against” it. They insist on tolerance, but they have no tolerance for this attitude. Nowhere in the essay does one find a suggestion of the attitude, made popular by Pope Francis, that the Church should “accompany” sinners. No; the sins of American conservatism are unforgivable.  [Scratch a liberal and, beneath, you find a fascist.]

“Triumphalist, arrogant and vindictive ethnicism is actually the opposite of Christianity,” the authors tell us. So this is a heresy, then—the “Manichean” references were purposeful—and it must be condemned? The Vatican today lauds Martin Luther for his desire to reform the faith, but denounces Evangelical Protestants for—for what, exactly? The Civilta Cattolica essay speaks—in typically incendiary terms—of an “ecumenism of hate.” But it is not obvious, frankly, who hates whom.  [Yes, Phil, it is clear.]

[…]

Guess who the Presbyterian and Jesuit think has come to the rescue from this hate-filled fundamentalism? Yep, you got it in one.

My friend Sam Gregg of Acton Institute texted me today that he has written a response which will appear soon.  I’ll be watching for it.  [It’s HERE]

The moderation queue is ON.

UPDATE:

Thomas Peters tweets:

And:

17_07_14_tweet_Peters_Ivereigh_01

UPDATE 

Sam Gregg responded in Catholic World Report.  A salient passage:

[…]

If the Civiltà Cattolica article simply reflected the views of a random Western European Catholic priest and an Argentine Presbyterian minister, few would be concerned about its content. But Civiltà Cattolicaarticles are subject to scrutiny from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Hence, it’s curious that whoever signed off on this article (assuming it was properly vetted) at the Secretariat of State didn’t pick up on the authors’ conflation of tangentially-related matters, or raise questions about the article’s emotivist tone, or alert Father Spadaro and Rev. Figueroa to their distinctly amateur grasp of American religious history and the finer points of American politics. If it is the case that red flags were not raised—or were ignored—then all Catholics, American or otherwise, have reason for concern. It is simply not in the universal Church’s interests to develop or encourage substantially false understandings of the United States or the Anglosphere more generally.

[…]

Posted in Green Inkers, Liberals, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , , ,
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BOOKS RECEIVED and the guy with the “Best Job In The World™”

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE BELOW!

____
I have a huge stack of books to work through, but the books are still coming. I appreciate people who send books from my wishlists.

First, Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred by my friend Fr. Uwe Michael Lang:

US HERE – UK HERE

The Augustinian Person by Peter Burnell:

US HERE – UK HERE

Speaking of stuff from amazon, when one of you uses my search box or links, I get a percentage, but also a lot of fun.

“What fun?”, you ask?

First, there is no way I can’t tell who orders what.  Unless, of course, you tell me.

One of you, a scientist and engineer at NASA, sent me a note of things he has ordered with my search box for his work.   I am not making this up.

Nerf rockets

footballs

and with the launchers, balls

Emoji stress balls

Fun noodles

This guy has the best job in the world.  He and his team are figuring out how to shoot stuff accurately off of a rover.

I can hear it now:

Lock and load one round of the M-2017 nerf projectile!

BEST Job In The World™.

I can imagine getting up and thinking “I get to launch nerf rockets today… FOR SCIENCE!”

So, everyone, you don’t have to tell me what you order and I can’t find out on my own, but this guy made my day.

ALWAYS use my search box.  Father needs dental work.

UPDATE 14 July 2017:

From the nerf nerds of NASA.

17_07_14_Nerf_For_Science

Notice the “angry birds” balls, too.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is how we build modern spacecraft.

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Just Too Cool, Lighter fare | Tagged
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Fr. Blake on fake news, filthy lies, nasty people, anonymity, vilification and bile

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
Medieval Gossips

Medieval gossips

From my friend Fr. Ray Blake, the great PP of Brighton:

Did you believe the story about the Pope submitting his five dubia to Cardinal Mueller? No nor did I, I just don’t believe the stories that begin Monsignor A told Bishop B that Cardinal C had said the Pope has said or done Y. I do my best not to listen to gossip, and not to report it. If we can’t try to speak the truth we are unlikely to be faithful witnesses to Christ, we have an obligation to speak the truth even if it costs us dearly in order to be credible. [The cost… some of you might not know what the cost is.]

I certainly don’t trust Monsignori or anyone who is willing to back up a damaging statement about the Pope without being willing to put his name to it, especially as in this case it was also about someone like Cardinal Mueller who is quite able to state frankly his own case and has a certain reputation of being honourable. Passing on this kind of ‘fake news’ is trading in filth, I find it as scandalous as stories about sexual deviants having parties in the Vatican.

Poor Pope Francis has to battle as much against with his friends as against his enemies, many of the more vociferous on both side are pretty unpleasant, they contaminate with their filthy lies those who listen to them and pass on in all innocence what they have heard. Simply, the Gospel allow it and threatens judgement against those who do it!

Medieval torture

Medieval Torture Rabbits

There is a very good podcast by Damien Thompson and Fr Ed Conlon at the end of this piece in the Spectator. Fr Ed hits the nail by saying that invariably liberal commentators misinterpret the Pope, it is not just journalists but as is discussed even revamped the Academy for Life came out with a statement regarding not keeping little Charlie Gard alive by extending his treatment, whilst the Pope, the very next day invited the family to Rome for further treatment.

One of the great problems with every court is that courtiers tend to fail to understand the thinking of the Prince, which means of course one moment you can be by his side giving advice and the next in a cage on the roof Castel Sant’Angelo exposed to the elements. The other thing about courtiers is they are often very nasty people, they put their trust in princes and not in the Lord. To see this today one only has to look at Twitter to see the abusive or gloating comments of those who claim to be close to the Pope today. If they judge a man to be an enemy of Francis there is no end to the vilification and bile.

The more unpredictable or incoherent a prince becomes the more violent and malevolent become those who surround him, of course they wish to control him, in the case of the current Pope this probably impossible, in the words of Cardinal Pell, ‘he is unique’.

Whew.

Little black antichrist Devils posting poorly thought through comments in a blog combox.

Little black antichrist Devils
posting poorly thought through comments
in a blog combox.

Posted in Mail from priests, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged
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CONTINUED: 100th Anniversary of Fatima Apparitions – 13 July 1917: HELL IS REAL

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

OLFatima-200Today is the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s appearance at Fatima to the three seers on 13 July.

What happened?

The father of Jacinta and Francisco said that when the 13 July apparition began, a small grayish cloud hovered over the holm oak tree, the sunlight diminished, and a cool breeze came up even though it was summer. He heard something like flies inside a jug. The seers saw a glare of light. and then saw Mary over the tree.

The dialogue of Mary and Lucia went:

Lucia: What does Your Grace wish of me?

Our Lady: I want you to come here on the thirteenth of next month and to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, for she alone can be of any avail.

Lucia: I would like to ask you to tell us who you are and to perform a miracle so everyone will believe that Your Grace appears to us.

Our Lady: Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I wish, and I will perform a miracle that everyone shall see so as to believe.

Lucia then made a number of requests for conversions, cures, and other graces. Our Lady recommended the constant recitation of the rosary; thus they would obtain those graces during the year.

Then she went on: “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say many times, especially when you make a sacrifice, ‘O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’“

This is the apparition in which Mary showed the children a vision of Hell:

Lucia wrote:

“Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.”

After that Mary said to them, according to Lucia:

“You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. [WWII] When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, [In January 1938 there was a massive Aurora Borealis] know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. [1st Saturday Devotion!] If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc. …”

Consider your sins committed and sins of omission.

Consider the state of the Church and nation.

Consider what YOUR role is according to your state of life.

Consider making some changes in your prayer life and works of mercy.

GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted in Four Last Things, GO TO CONFESSION, Our Solitary Boast | Tagged , , ,
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Feedback from a priest and the offer of a priestly pact

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Last night I exchanged emails with a priest friend.  We bumped along on a couple topics, expressing a measure of concern for what we are seeing in the Church today, and then came this:

I guess today I realized the reason I wasn’t frustrated and worried was because I had been completely ignoring what was happening. And what little Francishock news I had to deal with I simply dismissed with “He’s not going to break the Church.” Then I read a few things like this and this and started feeling the same way. It just seems like it’s accelerating now.  [In finem citius.]

I still believe that the Holy Spirit is in charge. I’m just not so sure I know where or how I’m going to be living my vocation in the coming months and years.

I need to pray more. A lot more. May the Lord grant you profound peace and strength in all this. You’re very much in the center of it. Nonetheless, don’t underestimate what a powerful encouraging witness you have been through countless articles and comments, not to mention all the ongoing sacramental work you do. God bless.

Fathers, let’s make a pact.

When the news starts to get to us, let’s reground ourselves in prayer and attending to our duties.  Also, perhaps read less about all the bad stuff going on.  For example, for the last couple weeks, I – who have Current-News Attraction – have simply not reviewed my regularly DVR’d programs.  I’ve been considerably more light-hearted as a result.

The moderation queue is ON (and the combox is open especially to priests).

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Mail from priests | Tagged
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UK’s CH: Can anything stop Catholic infighting?

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At the site of the UK’s best Catholic weekly, the Catholic Herald, there is a preview article from their upcoming 14 July number which merits your attention. I ingested it with great interest along with my at least quadruple espresso ristretto this morning and a couple of digestive biscuits.

The piece in question is by Damian Thompson, who delighted me with the opening sentence and kept me reading onward:

My first parish priest was a little old man with pebble spectacles who looked like a gorgeously coloured beetle as he bent over the altar in his Roman chasuble.

Damian, with whom I’ve had both resonances and dissonances, goes on to describe his own experience of growing up in the upheaval of the post-conciliar Church in England.  He then makes distinctions about the sort of upheaval experienced then, and what we are experiencing now.

He thinks that the Church is in trouble.  Yes, I know, I know.  Water is still wet, etc.  But hear him out:

Specifically, Catholics in the West – and that includes those in the Vatican – have adopted the liberal-versus-conservative mindset that has fractured non-Catholic denominations. It’s as if Christians are required to choose between two set menus, in which social justice comes with a side salad of transgender blessings – or, alternatively, you can opt for solemn liturgy with free-market seasoning.

That’s both clever and well-crafted.  However, I wonder if he isn’t missing something.  For example, it seems from this that those who choose a side are then content with their resting on that side with no further aim.

Clearly, I am in the second camp, opting for solemn liturgy and free-market economy.  However, I opt for those from my conviction that both are transformational forces.  Solemn traditional sacred worship, wide-spread and frequent, will serve to revitalize our liturgical worship of God across the whole of the Catholic spectrum.  It will help to form more and more priests, who will create their own knock-on effect in congregations.  It will give other initiatives of the Church the best possible foundation.  Free-markets are the best way available to raise the largest number of people from poverty and to expand the creation of wealth in a way that is consistent with the human dignity of work.  For me, liturgical worship and free-markets are not ends in themselves.  The ends, for me, are the reordering of love and worship of God (religion) and proper treatment of neighbor (justice), both virtues being transformed by charity.

Damian also makes some suggestions.  Here are the first two of the four he offers:

I won’t presume to suggest a route out of this mess, but I can think of some necessary-but-not-sufficient steps that the Church should take as an insurance against going down the route of the Anglican Communion.

First, liberal Catholics must accept that they’re not going to get women priests or gay marriage. Ever. The Church’s ruling on these matters is absolutely definitive. Married priests fall into a separate category: I sometimes think that if Francis had pushed through this change, instead of entering the quagmire of divorce and Communion, he might have been surprised by how may orthodox Catholics supported him. [I’d be surprised if any supported that.]

Second, the Tridentine Mass (I can’t bear the term “Extraordinary Form”) must not be banned again. That would be a betrayal of those traditionalist priests and lay people who stayed faithful to papal authority during the decades when they were treated as second-class citizens by their own pastors. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

[…]

Go over and read the whole thing.  Damian is a good writer and his musings are worthy of discussion.

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged
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ASK FATHER: Can I wear a Rosary like warriors wear weapons?

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Combat Rosary right to bear armsFrom a reader…

I wanted to hear your thoughts on this… I’m fascinated by the rosary and the idea that it is our weapon. I’m not a religious (nun or monk) but is it still OK for me to wear the rosary on the left hip as they do (like a sword)? I love the rosary and would love to keep one with me always but I’m not sure if it’s wrong for a lay person to wear the rosary this way.

Sure.

However, I would not make it in any way ostentatious, if you do not wear the religious habit.  I recommend carrying concealed, to borrow a term from a related field.

For example, when I use my clerical BDUs, I carry my Rosary concealed along with my oil stock and stole in the spare mag pouch on my left leg.  It seems an appropriate place.

Perhaps use a small pouch on your belt, like a holster or scabbard.  You’ll know it’s there and it’s there when you need it, and others don’t have to know.  If you need for them to know… well….

Remember that the Rosary isn’t a decoration or jewelry, though they can be as beautiful as jewelry.    They are not for mere ornamentation.  They are sacramentals and they are for use.

Don’t play with rosaries, pray with rosaries.

Say one for me, please.

UPDATE:

I had questions about my “clerical BDUs” or also “tactical clericals”.

I generally wear 5.11 gear, the shirts modified to the Roman collar, which is actually a development of the military collar.  For the pants US HERE – UK HERE.  For the shirts, modified, read this HERE for an old backstory and US HERE – UK HERE.  The 5.11 gear is super durable and comfortable. The black dye lasts longer than the waaay over-priced clerical shirts so, over time, you are ahead buying these and modifying them. I took mine to a tailor with a model of a “tab” shirt and a “band” shirt to be used for the attachable collar and, for a small price, had them modified.  They are great for travel, too, with their handy concealed pockets.  If you are on the road and need to rinse them or wash them, they will be dry by dawn. I also use a 1.75″ belt with a plastic buckle (good for TSA) and which can bear a clipped-on load (if you get my drift).  As an aside, for my white shirts for use with the cassock or vest, I have lately ordered inexpensive double-cuff shirts via amazon (US HERE) and, having removed the collar, with my own sewing machine (thanks to the reader who sent it), sewn a button hole into the outer layer of the remaining band.  Cheaper and better quality by far.  Whenever you can, DIY!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Our Catholic Identity, Our Solitary Boast, Semper Paratus, The Coming Storm | Tagged
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Catholic Channel on Sirius, criterion for sainthood path called “heroic values” not “virtues”

Posted on 12 July 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is from a comment under a post about the new “path” to beatification.

I try to be gracious, really. But sometimes things are too funny not to be shared. I was listening to the Catholic Channel on Sirius today, and they were discussing the new sainthood path. One of the existing paths was described as “heroic values.” I heard it twice, it’s not my imagination.

The “Catholic Channel”… on Sirius.

“Heroic values”… on Sirius “Catholic Channel”?

Serious?

Not funny in the least.

That sort of error is pernicious.

What show was that?

Who said that?

Who else heard that?  We need details.

Posted in The Coming Storm, The Drill | Tagged , , ,
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