ACTION ITEM! Benedict XVI “frail” and sick with bacterial infection

Posted on 3 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE:

Ed Pentin at the Register:

Archbishop Ganswein: Pope Emeritus Benedict’s Ailment Is ‘Not Serious’
The latest news of Benedict’s condition came from his biographer, Peter Seewald, who visited the Pope Emeritus over the weekend.

VATICAN CITY — The health condition of Pope Emeritus Benedict “does not give cause for particular concern, except for a 93-year-old man who is overcoming the most acute phase of a painful, but not serious, illness,” his personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein said Monday.

His comments, given through the Vatican press office this evening, came in response to a report in this morning’s Passauer Neue Presse (PNP) that Benedict XVI was “seriously ill” and suffering from facial erysipelas, a bacterial infection of the skin that causes a painful, red rash.

The infection, which mostly affects infants and the elderly, can cause fever, headaches and lymphedema and is treated with antibiotics. A form of herpes or shingles, it is not considered life-threatening.

[…]

Frail or not… Ill or not… Benedict deserves our prayers!

Let’s all pray for Benedict.

From CNA Deutsch:

“Schwer erkrankt”: Sorge über Gesundheitszustand von Papst emeritus Benedikt XVI.

“Seriously ill”: concern about the health of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI.

From CNA English:

Benedict XVI unwell since visit to Germany

Hmmmm… which is it?

By Hannah Brockhaus
Rome Newsroom, Aug 3, 2020 / 03:21 am MT (CNA).- Pope emeritus Benedict XVI is sick with a bacterial infection and “very frail,” according to a German newspaper report.

Citing Benedict biographer Peter Seewald, German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse (PNP) reported Aug. 3 that the 93-year-old pope emeritus is suffering from facial erysipelas, a bacterial infection of the skin which causes a painful, red rash. [Not viral.]

The infection can also result in fever, headaches, and lymphedema. It is treated with antibiotics.

Seewald told PNP that Benedict has been “very frail” since his return from visiting his ailing older brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, in Bavaria in June. Georg Ratzinger died July 1.

Seewald saw Benedict XVI at his Vatican home in the Mater Ecclesia monastery Aug. 1 to present him with a copy of his latest biography of the retired pope.

The journalist said despite his illness, Benedict was optimistic and stated he might take up writing again if his strength returns. Seewald also said the former pope’s voice is now “barely audible.”

PNP also reported Aug. 3 that Benedict has chosen to be buried in the former tomb of St. John Paul II in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica. The body of the Polish pope was moved into the upper part of the basilica when he was canonized in 2014.

Like John Paul II, Benedict XVI has written a spiritual testament which can be published after his death.

Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy in 2013, citing advanced age and declining strength that made it difficult to carry out his ministry. He was the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years.

In a letter published in an Italian newspaper in February 2018, Benedict said, “I can only say that at the end of a slow decline in physical strength, inwardly I am on pilgrimage home.”

 

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, Benedict XVI | Tagged
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Concerning COVID-1984 masks

Posted on 3 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For your Monday reflection…

Posted in The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged ,
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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 9th after Pentecost (NO: 18th Ordinary) 2020

Posted on 2 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass for your Sunday, either live or on the internet? Let us know what it was.

Also, are you churches opening up? What was attendance like?

For my part, I wound up – Surprise! – with Mass at the parish. So, this is what I was able to produce.

This was an EXPERIMENT! I tried to live-stream a recording (if that makes sense) of my sermon. Afterwards, I joined the stream live to chat and answer some questions.  It is also in another post, today.  Sorry about the redundancy, but I want to continue also this Sunday Sermon Notes series.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
12 Comments

2 August – Traditional Latin Mass – SERMON ONLY 9th Sunday after Pentecost – VIDEO: 1200h CDT (GMT/UTC -5)

Posted on 2 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Daily, I live-stream a Traditional Latin Mass at NOON Central Daylight Time (= GMT/UTC -5 and ROME 1900h).

Today: SERMON ONLY 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Prayers Added:
After Mass:

Today I was called at 7:00AM to take the 7:30AM TLM at St. Mary’s in Pine Bluff, WI. Here is the SERMON from that Mass.  Unusual situation.  This is an experiment.  At my usual time for Mass I will live stream a recording of only the sermon from the parish Mass.  Does that make sense?

Will you please tell others about these Masses?  Will you please subscribe to my channel? HERE Use the notification Bell!

  • NB: You can usually find an English translation of the Mass formulary HERE.  Scroll down. Use the 1960 setting.
  • We can say the Angelus together since the bells are usually ringing when the live stream starts.
  • I will say a Spiritual Communion prayer at the very beginning for those of you who cannot make a Eucharistic Communion. 
  • I will also recite in Latin the traditional  “Statement of Intention” (…a hint to priests).
  • After Mass and the Leonine Prayers, I will recite a prayer in Latin “In time of pandemic” followed by a blessing with a fragment of the Cross
    For texts of Prayers before Mass for each day of the week, in versions for laypeople and for priests: HERE

Play video

THANK YOU to my flower donors!

Click HERE to donate.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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HORRIFYING: Cathedral priests reject for confession anyone not-registered, verified by their documented GIVING in the last year!!

Posted on 2 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw this nightmare on Twitter:

I was frankly horrified and more than a little frightened for the priests who did this. I was not alone. I shared this with a good canonist, priest friend. His reaction was:

That priest is on the way to hell. We should pray for his conversion. How awful.

On. His. Way. To Hell.

Ed Condon wrote, rightly:

Friends, make an act of reparation for this horrible abuse.

One of the things the bishop asks – during the ordination rite – men who are to be ordained is if they have the intention to hear confessions of sins and give absolution.

Also, another thing that this underscores is how malleable the concept of “parish” has become.  I think that last document from the Holy See really didn’t address it adequately.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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PODCAzT 183: Bp. Schneider’s call for a Crusade of Eucharistic Reparation – ACTION ITEM!

Posted on 2 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

PODCAzT 183: Bp. Schneider's call for a Crusade of Eucharistic Reparation - ACTION ITEM!Bp. Schneider has called for a Crusade of Eucharistic Reparation. He released a text on his site, Gloria Dei, about sins against the Blessed Sacrament, offences against our Lord in the Eucharist, and the need of such a coordinated campaign.

Let’s hear what Bp. Schneider has to say in his text. I will try to set off in some audible way when he is quoting something at length. He has a few extended quotes and without a written text in front of you it might get a little confusing.

Tune your ear for his argument about how the Lord, though now risen and unable to suffer as we do, nevertheless is still wounded by irreverence toward Him in the Eucharist.   Also, carefully attend to the quotes from St. Peter Julian Eymard.

I read the whole text from Bp. Schneider’s site, make some comments after with some recommendations for ACTION! and then read also the PRAYER that Bp. Schneider attached for the same Crusade.

I pray that this offering may bear fruit.  The audio recording is offered especially for those who may find it hard to read texts or who, pressed with cares, can benefit from a reading.

Listen & subscribe: Apple Podcasts Overcast Pocket Casts RSS feed

https://wdtprs.com/podcazt/20_08_01.mp3
WE ARE OUR RITES!

PODCAzT 183: Bp. Schneider's call for a Crusade of Eucharistic Reparation - ACTION ITEM!

 

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, Cri de Coeur, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, PODCAzT, Sin That Cries To Heaven, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , ,
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1 August: Feast of Blessed M. Stella and her Ten Companions, the The Martyrs of Nowogrodek – FOLLOW UP

Posted on 1 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Trying to get this under the wire.  Next year I will do better.

1 August is the Feast of Blessed M. Stella and her Ten Companions, the The Martyrs of Nowogrodek, in Nazi occupied Poland in 1943.  Now in Belarus.

I wrote about them HERE.

Our battle for the Church in these troubled time, The Present Crisis, has to be fought on many levels.

What might not be wrought through the intercession of these Eleven Sisters?

1 August: Feast of Blessed M. Stella and her Ten Companions, the The Martyrs of Nowogrodek - FOLLOW UP

The artwork for the Beatification image painted by Jerzy Kumala (1998).

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Notes about how the relics of the Old Testament Maccabees martyrs reached Rome

Posted on 1 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Notes about how the relics of the Old Testament Maccabees martyrs reached RomeThis is an interesting day liturgically. It is the Feast of the Holy Maccabees, Old Testament Martyrs, and it is also the Feast of St. Peter in Chains associated with the Basilica of St. Peter ad vincula in Rome. The connection between the two is that the relics of the Maccabees are in a sarcophagus in the crypt of St. Peter ad vincula. Of all the relics of Old Testament figures these are probably the most important because of their weight for both Christians and Jews. It is fitting that the Basilica is one of the places most visited by Jewish visitors to Rome, because of the mighty statue of Moses by Michaelangelo, intended for the tomb of Julius II, is housed there in.

I learned a long time ago, that it is best to believe the claims that certain things are where they have for centuries said to be. However, in the case of the relics of these Old Testament figures, I have often wondered about how they got to Rome, or were even preserved.

Interesting things about this interesting feast.

NLM has an interesting article on the Holy Maccabees: HERE

Fr. Hunwicke, about the Maccabees, cites Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth, vol. II: HERE

I read a fascinating article HERE:  Margaret Schatkin, “The Maccabean Martyrs”, in Vigiliae Christianae Vol. 28, No. 2 (Jun., 1974), pp. 97-113.

Schatkin traces the Maccabee relics from interment after their death to their location in Rome. She uses Patristic sources as well as ancient Jewish writings. Some of the more modern scholarship she works with was, surprisingly, by Card. Rampolla, whose election as Pope after Leo XIII had been been infamously vetoed in the conclave to make way for the election of St. Pius X.

The place of the martyrdom of the Maccabees and preservation of their remains seems to have been Antioch, possibly at the Jewish Synagogue. Once Christianity was the official religion, Christians often seized synagogues and converted them to churches. The cult of the martyrs was well established in the East by the time of Sts Gregory Nazianzus and John Chrysostom and Augustine writes of their cult in Antioch (s. 300.6). It seems that Justianian translated the relics to Constantinople. However, perhaps some of the relics were moved from Antioch to Rome, which is why the Martyrologium Romanum on 1 August says that they were deposited in St. Peter in Chains during the pontificate of Pelagius I (d.561): Eorum reliquiae Romam translatae in eadem Ecclesia sancti Petri ad Vincula conditae fuerunt. It could be, according to sermons associated with or actually by Leo I, that there was a cult of these martyrs in Rome in the 5th c. The Leonine material says that the Feast of the Maccabees was joined to the Feast of the newly dedicated “Eudoxian Basilica” Sancti Petri ad vincula.

In 1867, a 5th or 6th c. sarcophagus was found under the altar of St. Peter in Chains. It had seven compartments each containing clothes containing ashes and bones which is consistent with what St. John Chrysostom said about them. There were also inscriptions on lead which indicated that also the their mother and Eleazar’s relics were included.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a treatise about why the Maccabees were privileged with a feast equal to Christian martyrs. (He seems not to have considered the Holy Innocents.) He argues that they were making a confession of faith, which is how the early Christian martyrs died. Chrysostom suggests that, because they were before Christ’s redeeming Sacrifice, and the greater fear of death, their martyrdom was superior to that of Christians.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged
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Washington DC: young people chalk “Black Pre-born Lives Matter” on sidewalk and are ARRESTED!

Posted on 1 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This, in the nation’s capital:

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , ,
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Lammas – Loaf Mass Day – 1 August

Posted on 1 August 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Call it what you will, 1 August, Feast of St. Peter in Chains, Feast of the Holy Maccabees, it is also

Lammas.

Noooo…. not the big hairy sheep.

Lammas is Anglo-Saxon hlaf-mas or Loaf Mass.   This is a first fruits  harvest feast, for making bread and bringing it to church.  Sometimes the loaves were pretty fancy.  There were even processions.

There is a great post about Lammas at the wonderful blog of The Clerk of Oxford.

There are beautiful customs that help us link the spin of your planet around your yellow star with the mysteries of salvation.  What a beautiful rhythm, year in and year out.  Each year the mysteries don’t change, but we do.  Each year we are able to harvest something different from them even as they take root in us and form us.

Here’s a reminder about one that is coming up in August.  On 15 August, Assumption, it is customary to have  herbs and flowers and fruit blessed.  COVID be damned!  Get your priest to bless some of these things on the Feast of the Assumption!

I’ve written about the Assumption blessing HERE.

Today, however, if you are able to bake, how about baking a loaf of bread?  Perhaps something even fancy or decorated?  At least go and get a loaf of some really good bread.   Sometimes something as simple as a piece of good bread and a little cheese or some jam is pretty satisfying!

This Owl Bread I spied at wiki is pretty spiffy.

Lammas - Loaf Mass Day - 1 August

On a serious note, I think that Lammas is also a date for some pseudo-pagans who are into dangerous rites that summon demons… ’cause that’s what those idiot rites do.  When you eat your bread – whenever you eat anything – say your prayers!  Ask for God’s blessing as you thank Him.  And perhaps you might say a a prayer to your Guardian Angel to give you protection from all the demonic activity going on right now.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged
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