Some interesting reading for this morning

Today you will want to read about Card. Sarah at Crisis.

Cardinal Sarah Marshals the Church Militant

And read his book. The Day Is Now Far Spent is now available in English. HERE

Some time ago, there was an unhinged piece at Fishwrap against the people who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass. HERE. Now there is another opinion piece strongly in favor of the TLM… at Fishwrap. HERE It is as if… as if… Fishwrap was trying to be balanced.  But that’s probably not the case.  I am not sure what their game is.  Perhaps they merely want to provide a chance for their usual readers to pile on with negative letters to the editor, which they will publish.  I suspect that’s what will happen.

I didn’t watch any of the pointless USCCB meeting.  It is pointless because they will talk and talk and talk about all sorts of things that need to be fixed without talking about the one thing that has to be done before they can be fixed.  Revitalization of Sacred Worship.  And THIS doesn’t count.  Anyway, I saw this note about the reaction of the bishops to the suggestion from Cupich and McElroy that one of their documents stresses abortion too much.  HERE  Not a good moment for those guys.   And HERE

Mother Jones is baffled. First, the Trump administration is giving funds to clinics that don’t promote abortion.  Imagine!  Also, it seems that there are people in the world who think that if you don’t want to be pregnant you might try not having sex.  Imagine!  HERE.  I took away from this piece also the news of an organization called Obria, which I didn’t know about.  It was founded by a Catholic as an alternative to big business abortion Planned Parenthood.

 

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@FatherTF good explanation of “Perfect Contrition”

Sometimes we Catholics use technical terms which, over time, have become a little confusing.  For example, recently I wrote a clarification about what praying for the “Pope’s intentions” really means.

My good friend Fr. Tim Finigan, His Hermeneuticalness, has a good post at his place about “Perfect Contrition”.  You should go there and have a good look.

In a nutshell, Fr. Finigan explains that “Perfect Contrition” involves hatred of sin because one loves God, whereas “Imperfect Contrition” comes from hatred of sin because of fear of Hell.  This is much like the distinction between “contrition” and “attrition”.

It is helpful to make these distinctions.

The priest confessor is not to give absolution unless and until he knows the penitent is truly sorry for this sins and has a firm purpose of amendment.  That is one of the functions – the most important in that moment – of your speaking aloud an “Act of Contrition”.  That is also why some confessors will begin the Form of Absolution after you say the part expressing the (less perfect, or “imperfect”) expression of sorrow for sin because of potential punishments.   The priest may say the Form even while you are saying the Act of Contrition because he was taught that he shouldn’t delay at all absolving you once he had heard your expression of sorrow for sin.

Do check out Fr Finigan’s excellent blog.  He was one of the first big priest bloggers out of the gate.

And… I owe him a visit!

And… as I write… I have on the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance!

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Mail from priests | Tagged ,
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BEER OPPORTUNITY from the traditional Benedictine Monks of Norcia! Think: Thanksgiving and gifts

Here’s a refresher about a good opportunity news!   The wonderful, traditional Benedictine monks in Norcia (Benedict’s place of birth) have a great deal on their beer just in time for the holiday season.  How about beer with your savory Thanksgiving meals?

As you will remember, these monks have had to scramble for years after the earthquakes devastated that part of Italy.   I was in Rome at that time, and we felt the quakes Rome.  The quakes destroyed their church and digs in Norcia and they have had to move up into the hills and rebuild everything.

The Norcia monks have been brewing terrific beer to finance their community.  They developed a “club” through which you can receive beer by monthly subscription.

This is very important for their income, especially as they have to rebuild so much that was destroyed.

They’ve taken over an old Capuchin church which will be the new monastic church once it is rebuilt.

You can help them and help yourselves at the same time!

The Norcia monks have a plan which allows them to lower costs of shipping and expand.

You can now get FLAT-RATE SHIPPING at$14.99 for a case to anywhere in these USA.  If you order 3 or more cases, you get FREE shipping.  Also, all subscribers to the Brewmonks’ Club get FREE shipping.

NB:  Also, they monks reached out to me and said that for every FIVE new Club members who sign up and reference “Father Z” in the “Notes about your Order” line, I will get a free case of beer to share with my priest friends and the bishop.

CLICK!

Their beers are available in both in .75 liter bottles in cases of 6 and of 12.  You can get 1 case per month or 1 case every other month.

Here are a couple idea.

Pastors of parishes and priests: I’m sure you have to entertain once in a while, perhaps fellow priests, perhaps some parish event like a fundraising supper.  Think about providing BIRRA NURSIA from these great monks.

Parish organizations, Knights of Columbus, etc.: Ditto!  This beer is as Catholic as it gets and you would be providing support to the monks in Norcia.

This beer is terrific with savory foods, such as sausages and roasted meets, robust cheeses and the like.   Think of serving Norcia beer at Thanksgiving.

In any event, would all of you reading this, STOP, and say a prayer for the monks?  They need support of all kinds.

New readers here might not know who these Benedictines are.

 

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Help these monks, enjoy great beer and make people around you impressed and happy!

Help the monks.
Help Tradition.
Help Fr. Z.
Help yourselves.

CLICK!

Posted in Just Too Cool, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , ,
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Veterans Day & Remembrance Day

This is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard in a long time.  Biretta tip to a commentator here. o{]:¬)

While it is true that today is not US Memorial Day, it is Veterans Day and, in the commonwealth nations, Remembrance Day.

Here is a setting of Lux perpetua from the Requiem Mass set to an arrangement of Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations.  Sung by Voces8.  US HERE – UK HERE

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord, with Thy saints, forever, for Thou art Merciful.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them.

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes

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

For my part, I got to be the deacon for a Solemn Mass today and did not have to preach.  Had I preached, off the top of my head I would probably have spoken to the way that both the Herodians and the Pharisees used flattery to lure the Lord into either siding with the Romans (temporal authority) or with God (spiritual authority).  Flattery is one of the ways in which we can participate in the sin of another.   Those ways are:

  1. counsel
  2. command
  3. consent
  4. provocation
  5. praise or flattery
  6. concealment
  7. partaking
  8. silence
  9. the defense of the ill done

Off the top of my head.

Otherwise, I might have spoken about the wickedness of inciting people to rebel against proper and just authority, both temporal and spiritual.  That, of course, leads to the problem of what to do in the face of improper and unjust authority.

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Rome: Mass at St. John Lateran for Dedication – wierd

I saw some of the video of the Mass at the Lateran, Rome’s Cathedral Church, for the feast of its dedication, 9 November.

Strange.  Two things.

Where are the altar candles?

What’s with shapeless bag albs and no cinctures?   There were other men serving in cassock and surplice, presumably from the Major Seminary next door.  But, what’s with the shapeless bags?

UPDATE

Someone wrote to say that the candles are in front of the altar.

It looks as if the candles for a altar have been placed on the railing around the confessio.

I say that makes them confessio rail candles, not altar candles.   And there is not altar crucifix.   Instead, they have suspended a cross over the altar underneath the baldachin.

It’s beautiful.  It’s not a crucifix.

This arrangement seems to be … I don’t know what it is.  I’ve seen a crucifix suspend on a baldachin in Milan, at Sant’Ambrogio if memory serves.  This seems sui generis…. as in… “Let’s make up a new way to do it!”  Anyone?

What the altar ought to look like.

Another thing.  Msgr. Guido Marini, the Papal MC, is no where to be seen.  Perhaps because this is a… I dunno… diocesan thing?  So, he is “Bishop of Rome” here and not, therefore, “papal”?

A couple more observations.   He didn’t preach from his cathedra even though he was in his Cathedral.   He, again, didn’t genuflect at the two-fold consecration of the Eucharist.

 

 

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, You must be joking! | Tagged ,
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Happy 244th Birthday USMC!

Raising a glass, especially to those now actively carrying the torch of freedom!

Have a ball and no heel-taps.

Today, instead of my usual daily carry coin, I’ll haul this one around.

 

 

 

Posted in Just Too Cool, Lighter fare | Tagged
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@DouthatNYT interviews Card. Burke

May I preface this by saying that I am still angry at the way former-cardinal-bishop-priest Theodore McCarrick was handled?  For his punishment he was made again a lay person?!?  REALLY?  Most of you reading this are lay people.  THAT’s a punishment?  And if the powers that be say that, “Well, we don’t intend laicization as ‘punishment’, per se…”, then that means he hasn’t been punished at all!   So, I am angry about that.

I think the Rite of Degradation of a Bishop should be applied to him, all the down through all the orders he ever received…. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

That said…

Ross Douthat of the NYT had an interview with Raymond Leo Card. Burke.

He asked some good questions.

For example:

Douthat: But what if it’s in the nature of a hierarchy to allow people in positions of authority to suspend the rules? What if you need more democratic accountability somewhere or the law won’t be enforced?

Burke: Well, clearly Christ constituted the church as a hierarchical communion. His public ministry immediately took these 12 men aside and prepared them. They weren’t all angels either, as we know. But there is always a temptation to infidelity to the pastoral office, to permit things that are evil when it comes to a friend. This, by the way, is “clericalism.” Clericalism has nothing to do with being interested in the liturgy or wanting to wear a cassock. No, clericalism is the abuse of the office of cleric for sinful purposes.

So, yes, there have to be controls and they actually existed in the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Up until the reforms of the Second Vatican Council there were a whole series of rites for the degradation of a cleric who betrayed the holiness of his office.

Douthat: Some of them very vivid rites.

Burke: Very vivid. For instance, if it was an archbishop or bishop, they’d dress him in the full vestments and then take them off one by one, with these very severe declarations, and then at the end, scrape the hands that had been anointed at ordination with a knife [or with a shard of glass!] to signify that this person had completely betrayed the office.

Douthat: Would you like to see such a rite applied to, for instance, the now-former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick?

Burke: I would say that it’s the proper way to go.

[…]

Do I hear an “Amen!”?

And he’s not the only one.

In public.  Prominently, to repair something of the scandal.

To read more about the Rite of Degradation of a Bishop.  HERE

For the Degradation of a Priest.  HERE

Posted in Fr. Z KUDOS | Tagged , , ,
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CQ CQ CQ Ham Radio Saturday: ZedNet revived

ZedNet has been quiet over the last month. I had sketchy internet in Rome.

However, I saw a registration recently in which the registrant, also a ham, specifically mentioned ZedNet.

We should get this going.

For more on ZedNet – HERE.

In short, this is a DMR mode.  In various posts I’ve described how I connect and I include a “bill of materials” provided by frequent commentator here WB0YLE, who also set up the EchoLink room.  It is neither difficult nor expensive to get going on ZedNet.  You need to assemble some hardware if you are not already set up, register with Brandmeister, if necessary.

Yaesu System Fusion (Wires-X) “room” 28598, is cross-linked to
Brandmeister (BM) DMR worldwide talkgroup 31429. 

It is time for me to fire up the rig as well.  I understand from my local Elmer that there has been a little sunspot activity and lots of hams are taking advantage of it.

Hopefully we will have contact via ZedNet or maybe SSB!  While I am at home, I’ll have my ZedNet dedicated handheld ready to receive.

Meanwhile, 73!

 

Posted in Ham Radio | Tagged ,
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Wherein Fr. Z maps weird things, connects dots, rants a lot, and offers an ACTION ITEM!

Yesterday evening I wrote about “creeping incrementalism” which can manifest in different ways, namely, the slow removal of things, until something is changed, and the slow addition.  Think of removing grains from a heap of sand until there is now longer a heap, or the addition of heat to water in which one desires to boil a frog.  Another way is the replacement of one thing with another, as a commentator mentioned, such as the process of petrification, minerals replacing organic matter.

These processes are slow.  They are used by the Enemy, so that we are not suddenly alarmed and make changes to reverse course and correct our ways.

For some time, as I hear about bizzare things going on in and around the Vatican City State, I’ve been trying to connect the dots.   This morning I connected literal dots just to see what a few of these strange things looked like, mapped out.

  • There was a horrible drug fueled homosexual orgy at the Palazzo Sant’Uffizio some years back.  That’s in the very building where the CDF and the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” are housed.  Where the Faith is defended and where Tradition is being fostered.  The CDF also handles the graviora delicta, abuse matters.  This is also very close to the a) place where Peter was crucified, b) the Synod Hall, c) the Casa Santa Marta (where Francis lives), d) the Basilica where Peter’s bones are.
  • A ceremony was held in the Vatican Gardens near the Museums where a tree was planted and an imam recited a sutra from the Koran that was intended to claim territory for “Allah”.  That video was scrubbed and the whole thing buried.  I recently went to that spot and saw the tree.  There is no plaque for the event, though all the other commemorative trees have a plaque.
  • A pagan ritual was held in the Vatican Gardens near the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.  A statue of Pachamama was venerated in a ritual way.  A pagan idol was venerated, in violation of the 1st Commandment.  This idol was ubiquitous during the Amazon Synod as were black bowls used in the rite to invoke that demon.   I know at least one priest who went to that place and recited Ch. 3 of Title in the Roman Ritual to exorcise a place.
  • Pagan symbols including many Pachamama idols with obscene dehumanizing photos were displayed in a church just up the main street extending to St. Peter’s Basilic, in Santa Maria in Traspontina.  There were regular ceremonies there to venerate the demonic idols over a period of a month.  An young Austrian man took some of the idols from this church and threw them into the Tiber River.
  • During the closing Mass of the Amazon Synod, one of those black bowls with a plant with red flowers, associated with the cult of the demon Pachamama, was placed – at the order of Francis – on the very altar of Saint Peter’s Basilica directly over the place where the bones of St. Peter are located.

What does that look like on a map?

These places are not very far apart.  Vatican City State is small.

What does this mean?   I have no idea what it means, exactly, other than that it means nothing good.  However, if I were on the side of the Enemy, I would probably want to make sure that events which summon the demonic should occur close to this most holy site.

Demons are attracted by certain actions and they then cling to the places where they were perpetrated.  Their claims must be broken by exorcism.

I have to ask this… what a sad this it is to have to ask… do priests and bishops out there really believe in Satan and the fallen angels and the whole spiritual battle that is being waged for our souls?  Do they believe in possession, oppression, infestation?  The power of sacramentals?  SACRAMENTS?   Really believe?

I’ve written this before, but I’ll post it again.  And again.  And again.  And again… until I start getting notes from priests and bishops about what they are doing.

Priests and bishops are not primarily administrators or coordinators.  They are not primarily nice guys or social workers or hand holders.  While ministry might include those things, they are primarily for offering the Sacrifice of the Mass and for exercising the Keys, by forgiving sins and by sanctifying, breaking the bonds of the Prince of this world and bring the presence of the King.   Anyone can do those other things.  Only the sacerdos can do those other things.  Let priests be priests.  There is nothing more important than a priest or a bishop can do than mediate for the people in the sanctuary of the holy places, churches, and to go to bless and cleanse where needed.

If I were Pope, I would weekly send exorcists around the curial offices to clean house.  If I were a bishop, I would weekly send priests around blessing the work spaces of the chancery and sprinkling holy water and even blessed salt.  Pastors of souls should do that for their rectories.  Fathers of families should ask the priest to bless their homes.

Hell and demons are real, friends. And they really hate you.  Fight back.  Use sacramentals. Even more powerful than sacramentals are sacraments.

Again, as I have written before…

We can get down in the dumps about what is going on or we can rise up and fight back.

I want to keep as many of you out of Hell as I can and enjoy the glory of Heaven with you when our time comes.

For now, however, we are in The Fight Of Our Lives.

So, you read about awful things in the Church and heresy and stupidity from her duly appointed pastors?  Fine.  If the Church is being attacked with such fury, and from the inside, that means that the Church is exactly what we need to belong to!

Paradoxically, the corruption we see and the infidelity we read of are proofs of the Church’s divine origin.

And since Christ founded the Church, that’s the Church I want to be in, flaws, wickedness and all.

Next, battle isn’t pretty.  Just as a soldier in the state of grace who does his duty knows that even in battle he is in the “safest” place he can be, so too we know that we members of the Church in the state of grace are in the safest place we could be, even though corruption and infidelity and disgusting things are going on at every level.  Since the Church is of divine origin, there is no place else we should ever want to be.   We can be sad sometimes at the results of the battle.  We can be afraid sometimes in the midst of the battle.  But let us not waiver in our trust in Christ’s promises.  Heaven is our reward, not worldly security, even in the Church.  The Lord is my strength and shield and my trusting heart exalts in Him and with song I’ll give Him thanks even for the terrible battle that it falls to me to fight as His priest.

Moreover, Rome is only Rome.  The “Vatican” is only the Vatican.  Curial structures are not of divine origin.  Christ promised nothing to the Roman Curia.  He made no guarantees that the Faith would be preserved in the Curia.  “Put not your trust in princes: In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation.”

Stick to the true and the proven.  Stick to traditional sources for the review of the content of your Catholic Faith.  Remember too that the content of your Faith is not just stuff to be read and memorized, but is also a Person with whom you have a relationship.  Stick to Christ.  Use the sacraments well.  Review your own state in life and, having determined your duties and obligations, carry them out faithfully and with singularity of purpose.  Examine your conscience and…

GO TO CONFESSION!

ACTION ITEM

Were every reader here, today, to examine his or her conscience and then GO TO CONFESSION!, offering up prayers of reparation for sins committed by faithless priests and bishops, faithless catholics who twist souls through their media outlets (Fishwrap, America, Commonweal, The Tablet, etc.), imagine the blow that would give to the Enemy.

Were every reader here, today, to take up the call of the Mother of God and do what she asked in praying the Rosary and making acts of reparation, imagine what a ripple effect that would have.

You are NOT few in number, dear readers.  YOUR acts of reparation would be NOT a few.  You can have an impact.

Were you to make an act of reparation and pray for forgiveness and conversion each time you read a story about the faithless agents of Hell who twist papal documents to contradict the Church’s true teachings, who are caught in the commission of evil acts, who distort minds and hearts through their horrid reporting or opinion pieces at certain internet sources… imagine the impact.

You might also pick a particularly annoying priest or bishop or media person who is clearly in trouble and dedicate some of your prayers for him.

Remember the prayer before using the internet. HERE

Remember also the prayer for the conversion or destruction of the Fishwrap.  HERE

Remember to activate your Confirmation.  HERE

Remember The Bux Protocol™.  HERE

Remember the Act of Reparation taught by the Angel of of Peace at Fatima:

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore You profoundly and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended. And by the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.

We are not helpless in this battle, friends.  We have mighty spiritual weapons, made strong and good by Christ.

FIGHT!

Do I hear an “Amen!”?

 

 

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, GO TO CONFESSION, Pò sì jiù, Si vis pacem para bellum!, Synod, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged ,
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