My View For Awhile: north

Posted on 15 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’m heading home after a maternal visit.

Alas I am reading the spittle flecked raving of a hysterical and, apparently psychic, Austen Ivereigh at Commonweal.

“None of this will bother Francis”! As if he has a clue about what bothers him or what he thinks.

He is doing his best to savage Card Sarah. To cover his own crazy leaps to conclusion before he ever read the book?

I have a long layover in ATL. Sigh. I’ll probably read more.

UPDATE:

As it turned out, in the lounge between flights I read a little more of this dreadful and undignified piece and did some selective quotes and red ink.

It’s truly nasty.

I suspect the reaction of the papalotrous is partly due to their opposition not only to celibacy for priests but their opposition to any sort of sexual control. I can’t shake the suspicion that they think that if priestly celibacy isn’t take down, then it will be much harder to force a change to the CCC on homosexuality. They have to break it the nuptial connection of priest and Church in order to weaken the ends of marriage between one man and one woman. Communion for unrepentant adulterers was a step in the right direction when it comes to the nuptial character of Christ and the Church and the Eucharist. Now they have to bust the priesthood down too.

Does that sound right?

That, as I wait to take off.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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More about #BOOKGATE and a Litany Against Modernists

Posted on 15 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

More on BOOKGATE below.

But first, I thought some of you would enjoy this new litany (for private use) in Italian.

LITANIE ANTIMODERNISTE

O glorioso S.Ignazio
  fa finire questo strazio
S. Giovanna d’Arco
  al modernista chiudi il varco
S. Caterina d’Alessandria
  dei modernisti caccia la mandria
San Benedetto abate
  i modernisti eliminate
Sant’Antonio eremita
  caccia il clero sodomita
Santa Caterina Labouré
  liberaci dalle sinistre suore coccodè
San Giovanni Battista
  converti il clero comunista
Santa Edwige di Polonia
  brucia gl’idoli dell’Amazzonia
O glorioso San Lorenzo
  convertite Bianchi Enzo
O glorioso San Venerio
  liberaci da chi concede l’adulterio
Sante monache anacorete ed eremite
  Liberateci da chi vuol cancellar l’Humanae vitae
San Fortunato di Camogli
  fa’ che ai preti non dian mogli
Dal cielo santi tutti ci aiutate
  i modernisti debellate

per omnia saecula saeculorum
AMEN!

Since most of the people this is directed against have Italian, … THERE!

Meanwhile, in other Italian news, Il Messaggero says that the vineyard that Benedict XVI wanted at Castel Gandolfo was ripped up.

Back in the Roman day, they used to chisel names out of inscriptions.  It was called damnatio memoriae.

Book cover… vineyard… coincidence, for sure.

Too bad.  Castel Gandolfo has some other farming elements, including a little dairy.  When we would go out to the gardens in our Latin group with Fr Foster, we used to sing songs in Latin to the cows.  And their are apiaries!  The milk and honey were sold in the Vatican commissary.

I wonder if John Paul’s pool is still there.  After all, they are trying to get rid of everything else that remind us of him, like his… you know… magisterium.

Meanwhile, Il Messaggero gives prime real estate to BOOKGATE.

“The anti-Bergoglio trap”…. NOT.

 

“Sarah, the conservative frontrunner on whom traditionalists pin their hopes to get ready for after Francis”

Posted in Liberals, Lighter fare, Priests and Priesthood, The Drill | Tagged , , , , ,
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UPDATE – HILARITY ENSUES- Lib reactions to the new book from Card. Sarah and Benedict XVI

Posted on 15 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 15 Jan 2020:

Antonio Socci (not a fan of Francis) says in Facebook (I’m not a fan of Facebook) that Francis summoned Archbp. Gänswein, read him a riot act, and demanded that Benedict’s name be removed from the book. Hence, Benedict asked for his name to be diminished in the book project so as to shield Gänswein from retribution.

Meanwhile, the lib reaction continues.

Two lesser luminaries in reporting on the Church, one for RNS and one for Reuters, opine (rather than, you know, report new) about the SALES of the book.  It’s an interesting window.

The book is selling well in French. I hope I have had something to do with that. HERE‘s a link!

Note Gibson’s use of Latin caveat emptor juxtaposed to a comment about high sales. There’s a movie with a phrase like, “I don’t think that means what you think it means.”

And note, “conservative groups” are out their buying up copies to inflate numbers of Card. Sarah’s books.  Oh, really?  Which conservative groups are those?   And has no lib group ever done that?   Nice try.

Note how Pullela says, “I’ts boring.”  I can see how it might be boring for you, Phil.  Moreover, you might not be the book’s target audience.  And if it is really that boring, inconsequential, then why has your end of the media spectrum gone bananas at the very thought of it?

 

UPDATE 14 Jan 2020:

This is how the enemy rolls.

  • Make a nasty insinuation or ridiculous proposal.
  • Let the poison you create bubble for a while.
  • Start walking back what you originally said.
  • Meanwhile, you’ve managed to gain a little ground for your side.
  • You’ve either caused corrosion in some good thing that your enemy did or you have bumped the needle a little bit in the direction you want it to go.

For example, the case of those who want to prosecute priests who won’t violate the Seal of Confession.  This comes up again and again and again.  Each time it is shot down.  However, each time a little more ground is gained, a few more people are convinced that a law should be passed that requires priests to violate the Seal.  Eventually, they get their way.  It’s called creeping incrementalism.

There was, if memory serves, a scene in Martin’s Windswept House wherein the arch stand-in figure for (I think) Card. Bernardin instructed the patsy stand-in figure for Bp. Lucker of New Ulm to make an outrageous statement and then, after some days, claim in the presss that he was misunderstood, or that he misspoke.   The Lucker character was to, in effect, take one for the team but in the meantime they would have changed the topic and gained ground.

That’s how they roll.

Now comes this tweet by Austen Ivereigh, one of the most obvious of the cringing papalotrous out there.

First, we roll back the clock.

A snarky comment to denigrate Benedict.

Then an accusation a few hours later.

And…

Is there a secretive group behind Card. Sarah and Benedict pulling the strings?

Turn to your allies. NB: La Croix is, in effect, Bobby Mickens, who had once lost a job with The Tablet for publicly wishing in social media that Benedict would die. He despises Ratzinger/Benedict.

Then he claims a victory lap while taking a shot at Archbp. Gaeswein as Benedict’s “handler”. See? We were right in saying that Benedict didn’t have anything to do with authoring the book because Benedict didn’t see or approve the books cover!

Then Card. Sarah released letters and the dance step mutates.

Releasing his inner Hillary…

Yes, it’s a vast, right wing conspiracy.

In short… take in the “no one doubts” bit.

 

Consider what is going on.

The discussion isn’t about anything substantive. It’s now about process.

All resulting in …

And…

The left will now claim victory.

Meanwhile, I suspect that their whining will only result in higher book sales.

May I suggest to you readers that you pre-order multiple copies to give as gifts to priests and seminarians?

UPDATE:

Okay… maybe the attacks are right that Benedict didn’t write his section. Maybe Greta Thunberg’s dad wrote the section by Benedict!

UPDATE:

Gerard O’Connell and Jesuit run Amerika attack Card. Sarah and the new book claiming that Benedict didn’t really write the section written by Benedict.

Now Card. Sarah responds via Twitter.

Translation:

Attacks seem to insinuate a lie on my part. These slanders are of exceptional gravity. This evening I give the first proofs of my close collaboration with Benedict XVI in writing this text in favor of celibacy. I will speak tomorrow if necessary. RS +

Who wants to hold their breath until the Jesuits apologize for lying about Card. Sarah and Benedict?

And then there’s this guy…

And Beans is giddy.

UPDATE:

How badly does the left want to kill this book?

And

____ Originally Published on: Jan 13, 2020

As you probably know by now, Robert Card. Sarah and Pope Benedict XVI have collaborated on a new book. They respond to certain aspects of The Present Crisis.™   It is their right to do so.

From the Depths of our Hearts

US Pre-Order Soon HERE for 12 March 2020 release! – FRENCH HERE

“But Father!  But Father!”, you pewling libtards are moaning, “Benedict isn’t a Cardinal!  He’s a Pope Emeritus!  He doesn’t have any rights, because… because …. YOU HATE VATICAN II!”

Yes, the libtards want Benedict to be quiet.  But consider that these same libtards didn’t want him to be Emeritus Pope, either.  They wanted him to become just another Cardinal again.  In which case, he would have a right to make his concerns known… so long as he agreed with them!

They want Benedict to be quite because, like Bobby Mickens, they hate him.

In any event, they want Benedict not even to be seen, much less heard, because with every word he publishes, their mask is pulled a little lower.

A good example of the panic incited by Benedict is Beans (aka Massimo Faggioli), the relentless self-promoter of Villanova.  Here are a couple beany tweets.   (I’m blocked by him… HA!)

In other words, “Shut up!”

And… in full panic mode…

Yes, one wonders.  One also wonders if Beans thinks that euthanasia might be a good solution for emeriti.  THAT would shut them up!   After all, old men with experiences don’t have a right to express an opinion about anything.

The best response to Beans yet. As a matter of fact, useful every day of the year. This guy to Beans:

Sapienti pauca

Homosexualist activist James Martin, LGBTSJ, is taking time out from defending sodomitical practices to sow some jesuitical doubt wherever he can.

See what he is doing? Rather than deal with what may be the substance (which he suspects doesn’t support his agenda given the sources) he is sowing doubt.

([The serpent] said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”)

“Did Benedict XVI really write the part allegedly attributed to him?”

In any event, I am now reading the new book in French.

More later.

UPDATE:

Ultra-liberal Robert Mickens, who lost a job with The Tablet for wishing on social media that Benedict would die, exchanged tweets with Daniel P Horan OFM of CTU (aka The Horan of Babylon)…

Birds of a feather.

Inter alia, since most people are saying that the book deals with celibacy, viri probati, etc., Mickens also tweeted that in 1970 Ratzinger once supported the relaxation of priestly celibacy.  To which the sane person responds: So what?   Ratzinger grew up, came to his senses, recognized that he was wrong, and changed his mind.  Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum.

As for the Horan of Babylon, you can get a sense of the astonishing quality of education offered to students at CTU from these two tweets.   I am not making this up.

That’s right.  You read it correctly.  The Latin Church’s discipline of priestly celibacy is on par with not eating corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day if it falls on a Friday of Lent.  Conclusion: a bishop can dispense his subjects from abstinence on St Patrick’s Day with the snap of his fingers.  Right?   Then the Bishop of Rome can dispense priests from celibacy with the snap of his fingers, right?  After all, they are merely matters of discipline.

What a brain trust CTU must be!

BTW… some snaps of fingers are worse than others, to use this “marvelous” example from a cartoon (for the CTU grads out there).

Click

Posted in "But Father! But Father!", Benedict XVI, Priests and Priesthood, SESSIUNCULA, Synod | Tagged , ,
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To save the world, we have to save the liturgy. Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 15 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My mantra in these electronic pages for years was and is and will be “Save The Liturgy, Save The World“.

Sounds odd at first?

Consider that of all the relationships we have, that which we have with God is and must be the most important, put before all others.  If that relationship is disordered, all others will be too.

We have to give to other persons what is their due by the virtue of justice.  But the Triune God is qualitatively a different person, so we have a different virtue that governs what is due to God: religion.

We fulfill the virtue of religion especially in our sacred liturgical worship, as individuals and as groups, small and large.  So, the sacred liturgical worship of the Church orders everything we do, gives it sense and purpose.  Hence, every gesture and word of sacred liturgical worship is significant and has effects on us and everything we do as Catholics.  And the more sacred the rite, the greater impact.

Eucharist is to be understood not only as the Eucharistic species, Body, Blood Soul and Divinity of Christ.  Eucharist is that, but it is also Its celebration: Holy Mass.  The Eucharist (Host and Mass) is the “source and summit’ of the life of the Church.  If our treatment of the Eucharist (Host and Mass) is disordered, everything else we do will be disordered.

Just as the Fall of our First Parents produced devastating “ripples” through material creation, so that we are out of order with it and it with us on many levels, so to do liturgical abuses or even poorly intentioned sacred liturgical worship produce “ripples” in the cosmos.

Celebrate the liturgy well, good results.  Celebrate poorly, bad results.

In my “Save The Liturgy, Save The World” manifesto in 2007, I wrote:

If we really believe that, then we must also hold that what we do in church, what we believe happens in a church, makes an enormous difference.

Do we believe the consecration really does something? Or, do we believe what is said and how, what the gestures are and the attitude in which they made are entirely indifferent? For example, will a choice not to kneel before Christ the King and Judge truly present in each sacred Host, produce a wider effect?

If you throw a stone, even a pebble, into a pool it produces ripples which expand to its edge. The way we celebrate Mass must create spiritual ripples in the Church and the world.

So does our good or bad reception of Holy Communion.

So must violations of rubrics and irreverence.

I stand by that.

Now a young priest has taken up the theme, or so I read at LifeSite.

Fr. Mark Goring has called for a return to Communion on the tongue while kneeling.  Why?  To avert apocalyptic disaster, due to irreverence.

“Is receiving the Eucharist on our knees going to fix all the world’s problems? I think it will,” he said.

This is timely, in light of the new book by Card. Sarah and Benedict XVI, who are both champions of a return to the better and more reverent and entirely reasonable practice of reception of Communion directly on the tongue while kneeling.

Fr. Goring says what I have been shouting for over a decade.  He says it in his own way, but it is, effectively, the same thing.

We deserve – collectively – sharp correction from God due to our collective laxity when it comes to our sacred liturgical worship.  We have not been fulfilling the virtue of religion, giving God what is His due.  Chastisement would be deserved.  We can avert some of that, or lessen it, by revitalizing our worship and by acts of reparation: in other words by getting serious.

Please allow me to rant.

I’ve been talking to people who are just plain tired of “yet another book” which effectively says what we expect the writers might say in the first place.  Yes, the books are good because the chronicle The Present Crisis for future generations, and they really do contain great spiritual material.  Yes, the books are good.

But do books constitute action?  Does reading a book constitute action?

They might help, but they are not themselves enough.

What is needed is concrete action in the lives of more Catholics.

We need priests to start priesting as if their souls depended on it.  And that pep speech has the added benefit of being exactly true: their souls do depend on it.

We need lay people to start demanding priests to priest, as if their souls depended on it.  Again, true.

I have a quote on the sidebar from Fulton Sheen:

“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”

Sound about right?

Here are some ideas.

  • Fathers, begin a process of liturgical catechesis and start your parishes on a return to Communion on the tongue while kneeling
  • Ditto, a return to ad orientem worship.  Remember, Klaus Gamber, who influenced Ratzinger deeply, said that versus populum worship was the single most damaging thing done in the name of Vatican II.  There are priests who have successfully done this in their parishes: seem them out and get their advice.
  • Fathers, learn the Traditional Roman Rite.  I know that Latin is intimidating.  But what part of priesthood did they promise you was going to be easy?  Anything that produces big benefits requires work.  It can be done.  If priests in the past did it, you can do it.
  • Lay people: start forming “base communities of Faith”.  This might take the form of Saturday morning coffee groups where you read the Sunday readings and study the Catechism… a catechism at least.   Then, if you hear something weird from the pulpit, show up, as a group, in front of the priest, with your catechisms and sources and pin him down.  “What was that, Father?”
  • Lay people: Prompt, cajole, urge, beg, persuade your priests to move to ad orientem worship and Communion on the tongue.  Tell them you will help in any way to make it happen, even paying for all the carpentry, etc.
  • Lay people:  Prompt, cajole, urge, beg, persuade your priests to learn the TLM.  Promise and execute when it comes to buying things, provided help and time at the church to set up, take down, everything.  Give 110% support.
  • Fathers and lay people: GO TO CONFESSION.

Get clean for this battle.

A special note to SEMINARIANS:

Men, be careful.  You are young and zealous and these are hard times.  Many of us older guys went through the bad times before.  There were some years of relative calm.  Now tough times are returning in many places… not everywhere, but in many places.   You might be disoriented having grown up in the time of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and relative sanity.

Keep your heads down.

I recall our old Rules for Seminary Survival in the 1980s. Where you are they may pertain once again:

Rarely affirm.
Never deny.
Seldom make distinctions.
Smile a lot.
Say very little.
Never wear black.

In my day, you could be called in for wearing black socks!   These days that last one might be something else… like… back out of the room?

In the 80’s, it was as if we were officers-in-training, but in the military academy of the enemy.

I don’t want you to look for problems where there aren’t any.  Also, there are so many more good bishops now who really care about their seminarians.  That wasn’t the case back in the day, believe me.  So, if this are good and calm and peaceful and solid and faithful and clean, then… FORWARD!   But still be careful.

This is what you must do if your profs and the staff are modernists: don’t fight them.  It isn’t your job in the seminary to teach or to correct or to defend.  Smile. Learn what these modernist oppressors have to teach, parrot it back to them, and read good books on your own, with a flashlight and shades drawn if necessary.

And if you have to give up the internet, then for the love of God and His Holy Church give it up.

Get ordained.

Your day will come.

Concretely:

  • Keep your mouths shut.
  • Assume that your use of the internet is being monitored.  Avoid using the seminary’s internet to look at anything other than neutral or liberal sites.
  • Cough up the dough to get a separate plan for data for your laptops and phones.  Use VPNs.
  • If several of you must pool resources to do that, do that, and then – discreetly – do the samizdat thing.
  • Use your personal handhelds or phones for surfing good Catholic sites but avoid seminary WiFi.
  • If you can’t find a way around their logging, or you can’t afford the data in your country, then either give up traditional sites when surfing or give up the internet completely!

Go silent and go deep.

And if you get a biretta through the BIRETTAS FOR SEMINARIANS Project, and you are in an iffy situation, keep the biretta at home.  Don’t have it at the seminary.  Your day will come.

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged , ,
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Summary of FACTS about the controversial new book by BOTH Card. Sarah and Benedict XVI

Posted on 15 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Edward Pentin has posted at the National Catholic Register a summary of the FACTS surrounding the controversial new book from Card. Sarah and Pope Benedict XVI.

HERE

As you know, as soon as the book was announced the attacks began to pour in from the liberal left.  Insinuations were made that Benedict was being used, that Sarah lied, that Benedict is too weak to write anything, that they were attacking Francis, etc. etc.

As it turns out none of those things were true.  Of course.  Nevertheless, damage was done.  That’s how the left, especially the more papalotrous of “Team Francis”, roll.  Unhindered by the speed bumps called FACTS they careened forward in a mad race to smash this book – and the authors – before it could get traction due to its substance.  They astutely engineered a process story to undercut what they suspected would be the actual substance of the text between the book’s covers.

Do read Pentin’s piece and ponder the ramifications.   It’s pretty clear that the claims made by the attackers were false.  More than one person has been thrown under the bus.  Who did the throwing and why?

Meanwhile, if you haven’t already, order a few copies.   First, huge sales a great way to irritate the loony left.  Second, irritate them even more by making sure I get credit for the sales.  Third,  – and this is the overarching reason – there is gold for priests in the pages.

I’ve now read it.

As you read it you can sense that it truly is…

From The Depths Of Our Hearts

US Pre-Order Soon HERE for 12 March 2020 release! – FRENCH HERE

Here is another taste, taken from the section by Card. Sarah.

Context: Card. Sarah includes in his own offering some personal anecdotes, what it was like to be a young priest in Africa, visiting villages where priests hadn’t been able to visit for year, how the people received him.  He relates the conversion of his father and grandmother and what the impact on the people was the presence of the celibate priest.  He remarks about the entirely different impact the priest would have made had he been married and then laments even the desire to take away the profound experience of the people in meeting “another Christ” who is entirely handed over.   It is poignant text.  Then, in my fast translation from French…

The priesthood is a gift that one receives as the Incarnation of the Word is received. It is neither a right nor an obligation. A community that would be formed in the ideal of a “right to the Eucharist” would no longer be a disciple of Christ. As its name indicates, the Eucharist is an act of thanksgiving [Fr action de grâce], a gratuitous gift, a merciful present. One receives the Eucharistic presence with wonder and joy as an unmerited gift. The believer who claims it as due to him demonstrates that he is not capable of understanding it.

I am convinced that the Christian communities of the Amazon do not themselves go along with the reasoning of demanding the Eucharist. Instead, I believe that these topics are the obsessions whose source is found in the milieus of university theology departments. We are dealing with ideologies developed by a few theologians who, like the sorcerer’s apprentice, wish to utilize the distress of poor peoples as an experimental laboratory for their clever plans. I cannot allow myself to let them act freely in silence. I want to take up defense of the poor, the lowly, of these people who are “without a voice”. Let us not deprive them of the fullness of the priesthood. Let us not deprive them of the true meaning of the Eucharist. We cannot “trifle/tamper with [Fr trafiquer] the Catholic doctrine of the priesthood and celibacy the light of perceived or supposed needs of certain extreme pastoral situations”, as Marc Cardinal Ouellet recently remarked.

I don’t have an English copy of what Card Ouellet said, so I did my best with that difficult word “trafiquer”.

However, I think you can see that Card. Sarah is not holding back.

Posted in Cri de Coeur, Priests and Priesthood, Synod, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , ,
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14 January – Festum Asinorum #FeastoftheAss Day! (No, it’s not a special Jesuit holiday.)

Posted on 14 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It may be that you have been distracted by book news.

However, in other news, today is the Feast of the Ass.

Today, 14 January, is the Feast of the Ass, Asses… the Festum Asinorum (in Latin, plural… inclusive!).

No, I am not talking about whom you think I’m talking about.  And, no, it’s not a special Jesuit feast.

The feast which became popular in France, could have stemmed from the so-called “feast of fools”.  It may tendrils into biblical donkeys, or the integration of the ass into the nativity narrative.  It could have been in part inspired by a sermon of pseudo-Augustine.

The day included the tradition of a parading a couple of kids (not goats) on an ass (not a Jesuit) right into the church, next to the pulpit during the sermon.  The congregation would respond with loud “hee haws”.

Who said that the Middle Ages were dreary?

In any event, it was celebrated for a long time and then faded out.

Here are possible greeting cards.

One for your parish priests….

Dear Fr. ___

There is a rather long entry about this at Wikipedia.  It includes a liturgical note:

At Beauvais the Ass may have continued his minor role of enlivening the long procession of Prophets. On the January 14, however, he discharged an important function in that city’s festivities. On the feast of the Flight into Egypt the most beautiful girl in the town, with a pretty child in her arms, was placed on a richly draped ass, and conducted with religious gravity to St. Stephen’s Church. The Ass (possibly a wooden figure) was stationed at the right of the altar, and the Mass was begun. After the Introit a Latin prose was sung.

The first stanza and its French refrain may serve as a specimen of the nine that follow:

Orientis partibus
Adventavit Asinus
Pulcher et fortissimus
Sarcinis aptissimus.
Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez,
Belle bouche rechignez,
Vous aurez du foin assez
Et de l’avoine a plantez.

(From the Eastern lands the Ass is come, beautiful and very brave, well fitted to bear burdens. Up! Sir Ass, and sing. Open your pretty mouth. Hay will be yours in plenty, and oats in abundance.)

Mass was continued, and at its end, apparently without awakening the least consciousness of its impropriety, the following direction (in Latin) was observed:

In fine Missae sacerdos, versus ad populum, vice ‘Ite, Missa est’, ter hinhannabit: populus vero, vice ‘Deo Gratias’, ter respondebit, ‘Hinham, hinham, hinham.’

(At the end of Mass, the priest, having turned to the people, in lieu of saying the ‘Ite missa est’, will bray thrice; the people instead of replying ‘Deo Gratias’ say, ‘Hinham, hinham, hinham.’)

Here’s a treat for the Feast of the Ass.

Judging from the lyrics, this seems to be the festive installation of the “bishop” …who’s seems, appropriately, to be an ass.

Cliche today, perhaps, but still fun.

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

Have you sent a greeting card to someone?

BTW… there is a musical setting. HERE

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged
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Letter from Card. Sarah in which he forgives his persecutors

Posted on 14 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE:

From Ignatius Press

UPDATE:

Originally Published on: Jan 14, 2020 at 06:25

From Card. Sarah about the attacks on him and his integrity.

He forgives his persecutors.

Translation from Bree Dail.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged
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“With all the priests, we pray: Save us, Lord, we perish!” A snippet from the new Benedict/Sarah book

Posted on 14 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A snip of the co-authored introduction from the new book, by Sarah and Benedict.   The book is offered “en hommage” to all the priests of the world.

We thought in particular of priests. Our priestly heart wanted to comfort them, to encourage them. With all the priests, we pray: Save us, Lord, we perish! The Lord sleeps while the storm is unleashed. He seems to abandon us to the waves of doubt and error. We are tempted to lose confidence. On all sides, the waves of relativism submerge the boat of the Church. The apostles were afraid. Their faith has died down. The Church also sometimes seems to falter. At the heart of the storm, the apostles’ confidence in the power of Jesus was shaken. We are living this same mystery. However, we are deeply at peace because we know that it is Jesus who leads the boat. We know it will never sink. We believe that it alone can lead us to the port of eternal salvation. We know that Jesus is there, with us, in the boat. We want to reiterate our confidence and our absolute, full, undivided loyalty. We want to repeat to him the big “yes” that we said to him on the day of our ordination.

The image of the Barque of Peter tossed on the waves, taking on water, was used before by Benedict, just before he was elected Pope in 2005.  It was an image during the Stations of the Cross he penned for Good Friday at the Colosseum that year.  Who can forget John Paul II watching from his room in the Apostolic Palace, days before he died.

You can understand why the libs hate this book so much that they are smearing even its authorship.  They’ll do anything to stop this book from being widely diffused and taken to heart… especially by priests and bishops.

They’ll do anything.

Pray for Card. Sarah.

Pray for Benedict XVI.

Yes, the book treats celibacy in a particularly profound way for priesthood. However, that’s only the surface of it.   There’s more going on.

From the first part of Card. Sarah’s offering:

We have seen in recent months, around the synod on the Amazon, so much haste, so much excitement. My bishop’s heart is troubled. I have received many disoriented, anxious and bruised priests in the depths of their spiritual lives by the violent questioning of the doctrine of the Church. I want to tell them again today: don’t be afraid!

[…]

Dear brother priests, I want to speak to you plainly. You seem lost, discouraged, overwhelmed by suffering. A terrifying feeling of abandonment and loneliness embraces your heart. In a world plagued by unbelief and indifference, it is inevitable that the apostle will suffer: the priest burning with faith and apostolic love quickly realizes that the world in which he lives is as if upside down. However, the mystery within you can give you the strength to live in the midst of the world. And whenever the servant of “the one thing necessary” strives to put God at the heart of his life, he brings a little light into the darkness.

US Pre-Order Soon HERE for 12 March 2020 release! – FRENCH HERE

 

 

 

Posted in Benedict XVI, Mail from priests, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged ,
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FIRST REMARKS about the new book by Card. Sarah and Benedict XVI

Posted on 13 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Robert Card. Sarah and Pope Benedict XVI have collaborated on a new book. They respond to certain aspects of The Present Crisis.™

From the Depths of our Hearts

The dedication of the book says it all.

En hommage aux prêtres du monde entier.

This comes into archaic English parlance better than more modern.

“With our compliments to the priests of the whole world” or rather “as an act of hommage/tribute/respect/gratitude to all the priests in the world”.

I have some initial remarks.  I may ramble a little, since I am writing really quickly.

I’ve now read the editor’s note or preface by Nicholas Diat (who helped Sarah with the other books), the introduction signed by both authors, Sarah and Benedict, and the first essay by Benedict which is a theological look at the meaning of priesthood.

Yes, the book is partly a reaction to the chaos that came from the last Synod (“walking together”… and bowing before idols together).   But it goes far beyond the synod.  Yes, the book treats priestly celibacy, which has lib knickers all in a twist, but it goes way beyond mere celibacy, as important as that is.  So far what I’ve read is an attempt to bring priests back to a better understanding of who they really are as priests, what priesthood is.

I’ve been saying for years that Benedict engaged in a kind of Marshall Plan for the Church when he issued Summorum Pontificum.  That was one major move in his work to reconstitute the identity of the Church, and it involved the critical element of our liturgical worship.  As these days I repeat a lot: we are our rites.  As the Marshall Plan intended to create a strong Europe against Communism, so Benedict wanted to build the Church up to resist the onslaught of the dictatorship of relativism.   Liturgy is key.

Another thing I’ve been saying for years is that when priests learn the older, traditional form of Holy Mass, it changes their self-perception as priests.  They learn about themselves in way that the Novus Ordo does not provide.   In turn, this priestly self-understanding has a knock on effect on their congregations.   They see that he says Mass differently, etc. and react to it.  It is not by chance that some, who have forgotten or never learned who they are as Catholics, or who have perhaps succumbed to the three great enemies we all face, the world, flesh and Devil, react violently to priests who have reconnected with tradition.  The Enemy wants us atomized, cut off from the good sap of our identity, which is rooted in tradition.

In this new book, Benedict is trying to help priests know themselves better.  Yes, that involves the meaning of celibacy, but celibacy is just a result of self-understanding.

Another thing which I gripe about constantly is that when 99% of bishops say or do anything collectively, they virtually ignore our sacred liturgical worship.  They think that initiatives, programs, pamphlets, committees will help us in The Present Crisis.   I’ve been saying that everything has to start with revitalization of our liturgical worship because we are our rites.   We must attend, first, to the virtue of religion, individually and collectively.  Only then will programs accomplish anything.  It’s about liturgy.   Benedict’s section is deeply liturgical.

Benedict compares and contrasts the Old Testament priesthood with the New.  He gets into “ministry”.  (I have an anecdote about that with him from my years in Rome.) After writing about the New Testament priest as mediator of the Word, he unpacks three texts, two from Scripture and a phrase from Eucharistic Prayer II which is ancient.  Remember that Ratzinger understands that liturgical texts are loca theologica.    He provides part of a sermon he gave on a Holy Thursday.

However, all three of these are points of reflection for Benedict from his own personal history of meditating of the priesthood, and on his own priesthood.

For example, the first text he unpacks is Ps 16: 5-6 which he states is part of the pre-Conciliar ceremony of tonsure, by which a man first became a cleric (under the old Code).  He writes that he meditated on this verse the night before he was tonsured, so long ago, and provides his own thoughts.

How I envy, in a way, those young men in traditional seminary programs now who will be able to use what Benedict wrote here to ponder and reflect on before and after they are tonsured.   What a tragic mistake it was to eliminate those minor orders.  Perhaps if we had retained them and tried to make them better understood and more profoundly appreciated for what they are, we might not be in this crisis of priesthood now.

One of the points Benedict works with in looking at Ps 16 is how all the tribes of the Jews had a portion of property that would sustain them.  All except for the Levites, who renounced land and property to live wholly from the altar.  But there is in the verse also the image of the chalice.  He unpacks that as well.

About the common introduction by both Sarah and Benedict.

There is something quite subtle going on in that introduction, it seems to me.  They quote St. Augustine’s Letter 23, written in the 390’s, to a Donatist bishop in Numidia, Maximinus, who was reported to have re-baptized people.   Benedict is no fool.  He knows his Augustine.  If there is a quote from a letter, it is a good idea to look at the whole letter and see if there is something more going on.

What’s up with Ep 23?

Augustine is, at this point, still a priest, not yet Bishop of Hippo.  The Donatist crisis is tearing the Church apart because if, effectively, a misunderstanding of priesthood and how grace is conferred.  Altar was pitted against altar.  There were Donatist terrorists called Circumcellions who would waylay people on the roads, hoping even to be martyred in their cause.  The military was deployed.  Sarah and Benedict quote the part of the letter in which Augustine says that, because he is so troubled by what he had heard about Maximinus.  Augustine suggests a public discussion via open letters to help everyone get to the truth.   He adds that if Maximinus doesn’t respond in kind, he will not be silent and he will read his letters in public.  Augustine makes the point that he will not read the letters in the presence of the military, lest people think he was trying to bully anyone.  “Let us deal with the facts”, Augustine writes, “let us deal with reason, let us deal with the authorities of the divine scriptures”.   And he concludes, “If [my bishop] were here, [he] would perhaps have rather sent a letter.”

So, Augustine won’t bring in the military.  He says that his bishop isn’t there, but this is so important that it can’t wait.  He says that he wants dialogue, but if he doesn’t get it, he will make his own views public all the same.

Does any of that resonate with today’s phenomenon of requests for explanations and responses, but, in the absence of dialogue, making your own concern public anyway?

There is more in Ep. 23 but that’s enough to make me think that the introduction is more than just an introduction.

Back to Benedict on priesthood.   He writes:

« Face à la crise durable que traverse le sacer? doce depuis de nombreuses années, il m’a semblé nécessaire de remonter aux racines profondes du problème. »

Faced with the enduring crisis that the priesthood has been going through for many years, it seemed to me necessary to go back to the deep roots of the problem.

The problem is, many many priests and bishops, too, it seems to me, don’t know who they are anymore.

I think that a huge part of the reason for that was the decimation of our liturgical worship.

His essential view is that priesthood affects the entire being of the priest, it is not a function.  THAT is what has been lost in the Church, in his view.   As a matter of fact, he make an interesting remark that can be taken as laying part of The Present Crisis on the doorstep of the Second Vatican Council on the priesthood:

À l’époque de Vatican II, cette question de l’opposition entre ministères et sacerdoce est devenue absolument incontournable, y com? pris pour l’Église catholique. En effet, l’« allé? gorie » en tant que passage pneumatique de l’Ancien au Nouveau Testament était devenue incompréhensible. Le décret du concile sur le ministère et la vie des prêtres ne traite prati? quement pas de cette question. Pourtant, dans la période qui a suivi, elle nous a accaparés avec une urgence sans précédent, et elle s’est muée en une crise du sacerdoce qui perdure jusqu’à aujourd’hui dans l’Église.

During the Vatican II era, this question of the opposition between ministries and priesthood became absolutely essential, including for the Catholic Church. Indeed, the “allegory” as a pneumatic passage from the Old to the New Testament had become incomprehensible. The decree of the council on the ministry and life of priests practically does not deal with this question. However, in the period that followed, it grabbed us with unprecedented urgency, and it has turned into a crisis in the priesthood that continues in the Church until today.

About that anecdote.  One day I went to visit my old mentor Card. Mayer.  His previous guest was still with him so I waited.  Out came Mayer with then Card. Ratzinger, whom I also knew quite well by that time.  These two were great friends of many decades, both Bavarian, etc.  After some chit chat, Ratzinger said that they had been talking about what the burning issues were that had to be solved and, characteristically as a great teacher, asked me what I thought.  I replied that we have to make better distinctions about priesthood and “ministry”.  They looked at each other and Ratzinger said that that was exactly what they had been talking about.

Benedict touches on this issue of priesthood and ministry in his present offering.  Long ago he also wrote quite a bit about it.

In any event, Benedict’s section is deeply liturgical in its starting points.

Those are some preliminary remarks based on reading more than MSM reports or lib reactions.

US Pre-Order Soon HERE for 12 March 2020 release! – FRENCH HERE

Posted in Benedict XVI, Cri de Coeur, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity, Priests and Priesthood, Seminarians and Seminaries | Tagged , ,
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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Holy Family/Baptism – 2020 – Fr. Z rants about word accents and microphones

Posted on 12 January 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass that fulfilled your Sunday Obligation? What was it?

There are a lot of people who don’t get many good points in the sermons they must endure.

For my part, since I am visiting my mother as I write, and I had no public Mass, I did not say anything.  However, I went to check out the comparatively recently instituted TLM at the parish in my mother’s town.  It was Low Mass.

The priest, whom I believe is the administrator of the place, made a good point (among many) about the way God created man, male and female, such that through their complementarity new images of God could come into the world.  Adam and Eve could do what Adam and another Adam cannot, what Eve and another Eve cannot.

On another note, the priest did very well with the rites of Mass, though he had a running battle with word accents and a few other points of pronunciation.

Note to priests: Make sure that those prayers which are to be heard by the congregation have some polish on them!

Get those accents right, especially those 3rd person plural perfect endings.   Dear Fathers, it’s “deduxÉrunt et adduxÉrunt” not “dedÚxerunt et addÚxerunt”.  I can barely make my mind think about how that sounds.   The horror.  The horror.

Reverend and dear Fathers… you will find, right there on the pages of the Missal, indications about how to place stress in the word.

For example,

Sometimes, you change the meaning of a word by shifting the accent, as when you goof up cónditor and condítor.  At other times, when the meaning doesn’t shift… well… you just sound a wrong.

Also, Fathers, I recommend NOT using a microphone during the Roman Canon.  Let silence be silence.

There are, in the traditional form of Holy Mass, different levels of voice.  Sometimes you are so quite that someone very close, like a deacon or MC might have a hard time hearing you.  Other times, just those in the sanctuary or near the altar.  At other times, also those in the congregation.  The microphone destroys the distinction and brings us into the kind of liturgical schizophrenia which McLuhan would have recognized.

Let it be completely understood that I abhor clip-on wireless microphones.   That said, there is now a vesting prayer for the clip on!

Concede, Domine, virtutem labiis meis et prudentiam ad Tuam proclamandam veritatem, ut per indigni servi Tui vocem, vox Tui tonitrui in rota contremat terram.

Priests – especially American and younger – might want to consult

Fr. Z’s PRAYERCAzT Page

for some help with the Latin, particularly of those prayers which are pronounced at full voice.  For example, you don’t want to get anything in, say, the Pater Noster wrong.

Just some helpful hints, since I can’t post my own sermonizing today.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged
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