Sequel to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”? RESURRECTION

Posted on 6 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Sequel to Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"? RESURRECTIONThis is pretty exciting.  I read at Messa in Latino that Mel Gibson is making a sequel to The Passion Of Christ about the Resurrection.

The cast should come back for this next offering.

Anyone know anything else for sure?

For the great movie…

US HERE – UK HERE

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IL MESSAGGERO: Archbp. Gänswein sacked? #BOOKGATE continues – UPDATED

Posted on 6 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 6 Feb 2020:

Some updates at the bottom: how other newsies are treating this.

___ Originally published on: Feb 6, 2020 at 02:43

IL MESSAGGERO: Archbp. Gänswein sacked? #BOOKGATE continues - UPDATED

The Italian daily Il Messaggero of 6 February has run with the story that was in the German Die Tagespost, namely, that Francis has sidelined the head of the Pontifical Household, Archbp. Georg Gänswein, who is also the private secretary to Benedict XVI, because of the dust up over the book Benedict co-authored with Card. Sarah.  That book argues against what some people claim: Francis wanted to open the possibility of “married priests” through the upcoming Apostolic Exhortation following the Amazon Synod (“walking together”).   It was thought – based on a leak repeated without solid confirmation – that Francis would undermine priestly celibacy through the approval of “viri probati“.

That said, it seems that the upcoming document won’t break with tradition about celibacy.  Some folks got out over their skiis a little too far.

It is possible that the document did contain something about celibacy, but maybe the exceptionally good Sarah/Benedict book (out in French, in English, March) threw a spanner into the works and changes were made to the text.

The story goes that Francis was/is furious at Gänswein for #Bookgate. Gänswein has now effectively vanished from sight, been “disappeared” as it were.

In any event, here is the page from the 6 February Il Messaggero.

IL MESSAGGERO: Archbp. Gänswein sacked? #BOOKGATE continues - UPDATED

Gänswein has been seen less and less and is now, apparently, on a leave from his duties in the Pontifical Household for an indeterminate time.  However, Il Messaggero says that this is because of a “normal change” a new “redistribution of internal work”.

The writer at Il Messaggero used a grim Spanish word for Gänswein: “Una sorta di desaparecido … A kind of disappeared.”  As in “los desaparecidos” during the Argentinian “Dirty War”.  People considered to be ideological threats to the junta were “disappeared”, dropped alive out of airplanes into the Atlantic.  No bodies. No crime.  Just a shrug.

The writer of the piece guesses that another “head will roll”: Card. Sarah.   However, the writer also mentions that Sarah is just a few months from the obligatory age of retirement and it is unlikely that Francis will renew his mandate.

The writer for Il Messaggero archly concluded:

“The ultraconservative fringe of the Church which brought some of the bishops of the United States to threaten schism is in a state of alarm, but the text of Pope Francis (after some corrections [alcune correzioni], it seems) appears not to create any openings.  It seems that there isn’t a hint of married priests.”

American bishops?  Threat of schism?  After some corrections?  Perhaps the book made the difference.

However, it remains that Archbp. Gänswein is – right now – still officially Prefect of the Household.

Right.

And Card. Burke is – right now – still officially the Cardinalis Patronus of the Sovereign Order of Malta.

Speaking of desaparecido, as Il Messaggero suggested, at only 63 years of age Gänswein has perhaps not been given a golden parachute.

__

You should read this book, which caused a good deal of the sort of “mess” which Francis invited.  See what the fuss is about.

¡Hagan lío!

From the Depths of our Hearts

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

IL MESSAGGERO: Archbp. Gänswein sacked? #BOOKGATE continues - UPDATED

UPDATE: later 6 Feb 2020:

Die Tagespost today says that Gänswein has a leave of absence and that the papal spox says there are no openings for “viri probati” in the upcoming Exhortation.   But!  They end on a hopeful note for the libs!  Francis doesn’t have to use an Exhortation to announce married priests or deaconettes!  He could create “new commissions” to study these questions, and announce them in an apostolic letter.  Uh huh.

Il Fatto Quotidiano seems to go with the punishment scenario

Corriere della Sera goes with punishment, after a looong ramble to fill column inches.

From Il Simografo another take.   They try to “decode” what is going on with a simpler answer.  Benedict XVI’s health is declining and it was decided that Gänswein would take time off – he is still officially head of the papal household – to take care of Benedict.

 

 

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BREAKING: SECRET PROTEST CALLED AGAINST FUTURE PAPAL CONCLAVE APP

Posted on 5 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

BREAKING: SECRET PROTEST CALLED AGAINST FUTURE PAPAL CONCLAVE APPOn the heels of posting this – BREAKING: IOWA CAUCUSES AND PAPAL CONCLAVES! – I just received the following…

February 5, 2020 – (ROME, ITALY)

An unconfirmed source reported on Tuesday, 4 February, that Pope Francis has hired the Iowa Democrat Party to develop an app for use in the next papal conclave to count the votes of the cardinal electors. The progressive pontiff reportedly desires that conclaves should have more transparency.

The app, which was developed by former members of the 2016 Clinton campaign, caused widespread confusion during the recent Iowa caucuses, jeopardizing their future.

Conclaves, held in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, are historically closed meetings, literally meaning “lockup up together”.  By church law, electronic devices are not permitted in conclaves.  Many think that conclaves, like political caucuses, are outdated and undemocratic.

An anonymous informant stated that there is being organized a secret, by invitation only, protest at the development of the conclave app.  According that sole source, protesters will stand silently in a line at the entrance to the Vatican Museum, which is the usual public access to the Sistine Chapel.

“It should be moving,” the organizer said.  “This cannot be permitted.  Action is needed.  The integrity of conclaves is sacrosanct.   There mustn’t be leaks.”

An expert on the history of conclaves, Prof. Mario Rossi of Rome’s La Sapienza University, reacted to the news of the conclave app.  “Not good. The risks of disinformation would multiply by orders of magnitude.   Imagine the confusion of  voting miscounts because of a compromised app.  White smoke.  Then black smoke.  Then white again.  Chaos.”

The Vatican’s papal spokesman was questioned about the conclave app and Francis’s determination to bring transparency to conclaves.  At the time of publication no response had yet been received.

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ASK FATHER: Priest says “for all” rather than “for many”

Posted on 5 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

ASK FATHER: Priest says "for all" rather than "for many"From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Can a priest change the words”for many “ to “for all?” The priest said it’s optional.

No. A priest may not by his own authority change the liturgical texts. That would be a liturgical abuse. The priest does NOT have the option to do that.

Furthermore, “for all” is precisely what the Latin “pro multis” does not mean.  “For all” is precisely what the Church has officially taught for centuries that should not be said.

And this liturgical abuse is graver than others by the fact that it concerns the form of the sacrament, the words of consecration of the Precious Blood.

Since it seems that you have already spoken to the priest about it, you should get a recording of the priest saying this and send it to the local bishop. If that does not produce results, send it to the Congregation for Divine Worship in Rome.

What that priest is doing does not invalidate the consecration, but it is still a big deal.

The Church, much less an individual priest or bishop or Pope, cannot blithely change the language of the text, which has an official Latin foundation, from pro multis to pro universis (for all). That would explicitly contradict the Church’s teaching as expressed in Latin by the Council of Trent (cf. Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part II, 4). Such a change would contradict doctrine and not simply change emphasis about an aspect of that doctrine. The English must reflect the Latin.

UPDATE 6 Feb 2020:

A good point has been made in the comments.

It could be that the priest just slipped back into an older mode.

I remember an old priest who, late in the pontificate of John Paul II, slipped into “for Paul our Pope”.

I myself have to concentrate hard on the rare occasions when I say the Novus Ordo, not to do certain things, which are now powerfully wired in as muscle memory.  And even though I have written extensively on the propers of the Novus Ordo, the new translation of the ordinary is still “new” to me.

So, it is possible that the priest in question just slipped.

However, the questioner said she asked the priest and he responded that he had the option.

No.  He really doesn’t.  That suggests that he knows what he is doing.

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Hate In The Time of Coronavirus

Posted on 4 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
Hate In The Time of Coronavirus

The Chinese Martyrs

Disease knows no religious border. Viruses are ecumenical.

As Coronavirus rises in China (HERE), we read that the government has cracked down even more on Christians, forbidding Christian funerals.

UCANEWS says

The government claims the new rules aim to “get rid of bad funeral customs and establish a scientific, civilized and economical way of funerals.”

“Clerical personnel are not allowed to participate in funerals” at homes and “no more than 10 family members of the deceased are allowed to read scriptures or sing hymns in a low voice,” the rules state. The new rules began to take effect recently, although enacted on Dec. 1, said a Catholic in Wenzhou Diocese in Zhejiang.

The regulations strictly ban “religious activities outside religious places, so the priest will not be able to hold funeral prayers outside the church,” he told UCA News.

[…]

China has banned funerals, burials and other related activities involving the corpses of deceased victims of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in Hubei province.

This reminds me of what Obama and the dems wanted for religious practices: to drive religion from the public square.

A while back the Holy See signed an agreement with China.  Since then, Catholics have been savagely repressed.

But do you remember the claim of Argentinian Bp. Marcello Sorondo?  He said in 2018, that “at this moment, those who best realize the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese.”

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Rush has lung cancer. Catholics owe him BIG TIME. Wherein Fr. Z rants. ACTION ITEM!

Posted on 4 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Rush has lung cancer. Catholics owe him BIG TIME. Wherein Fr. Z rants. ACTION ITEM!Rush Limbaugh has advanced lung cancer.  He made the sad announcement yesterday.

ACTION ITEM: Please pray for a complete, swift, durative miraculous cure for him, perhaps through the intercession of Ven. Augustus Tolton.

Every reader here, every committed conservative, faithful Catholic in these USA and elsewhere, owes Rush a huge debt.

Some of you are young and don’t remember what main stream media was like back in the day.  It was dominated by few, extraordinarily liberal outlets.

Then came Rush.

He busted the liberal hegemony.

I think he made it possible for the emergence of a new conservative movement in general and, therefore, in the Catholic sphere.

Talk radio changed everything.  And there really isn’t much of a lib talk radio.   The same goes in the Catholic blogosphere.

When ideas are truly exchanged, libs flee.

Rush was the trailblazer.  He developed a new genre in radio.

Last night I heard Mark Steyn, frequent sub for Rush, say that once when he was in Australia he was called up to fill in for Rush.  He told the PM there that he had to go back to these USA for Rush.  When Steyn remarked that Rush, then, had 25-30 million listeners, the PM said that that Rush had more listeners than there were Australians.

I once had a conversation with the late Card. George of Chicago.  He asked me how many readers I had.  When I told him, he was surprised.  He said, “You have more readers in a day than I have in a month.”

The same phenomenon, but in different settings.

It is unassailable that Rush has a galactic influence on the media.  He made it possible that more than one side of issues be aired.

Older folks might not have grasped completely what was going on back then.  Younger people did.   Libs are still bumfuzzled.

Those of us who were young when Rush started, are older now.  We remember what it was like to experience this shift in the media.  We know what Rush did and will continue to do for as long as he can.

Again, please pray for a complete, swift, durative miraculous cure for Rush Limbaugh through the intercession of Ven. Augustus Tolton.

 

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, PRAYER REQUEST, The Coming Storm, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged , ,
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BREAKING: IOWA CAUCUSES AND PAPAL CONCLAVES!

Posted on 4 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

BREAKING: IOWA CAUCUSES AND PAPAL CONCLAVES!I just received the following…

February 4, 2020 – (ROME, ITALY)

A source within the Vatican, whose identity must remain secret, divulged that Pope Francis has hired the Iowa Democrats to develop an app for the next conclave.

In the past, some have questioned the secretive conclave method of choosing a Pope, calling it outdated and non-viable.

It is hoped that the use of this app will provide for unprecedented transparency in the historically closed-door process and increase confidence in the validity of future papal elections.

Los Angeles Times reports that the Iowa app was originally developed by veterans of the Clinton campaign.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was unavailable for comment.

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ACTION ITEM: Another young family man with ALS, “Lou Gherig’s Disease” – UPDATED

Posted on 3 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

ACTION ITEM: Another young family man with ALS, "Lou Gherig's Disease" - UPDATEDA little while ago, I posted about a young priest with ALS, Fr. Dana Christensen.  He has asked people to pray to Ven. Fulton Sheen for a miraculous complete cure.

Another affliction of ALS has stuck another young man I know, Rintaro Arakane, who does IT for the Diocese of Madison.  This is a great young man, with a family, a wife and infant daughter.

A GOFUNDME drive has been organized for Rintaro.

>>HERE<<

ACTION ITEM: Another young family man with ALS, "Lou Gherig's Disease" - UPDATEDFor example, how about praying to Ven. Augustus Tolton for a complete, swift and durative cure for Rintaro’s ALS?

Please couple that with giving up less than what you might spend on a Big Mac meal – heck, give up a meal! – for a donation?

It can be more than a Big Mac, too.

Will you help?   Lot’s people making even small donations turn into a powerful force.

You’ve done this often to great effect.  This is one of the ways this blog can bring forth corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Tell them Fr. Z sent you!

The campaign was started a few days ago.  Let’s see if we can’t hit that mark so that they can raise the amount!

Here’s where they are now.

ACTION ITEM: Another young family man with ALS, "Lou Gherig's Disease" - UPDATED

UPDATE 4 February 2020:

You did it!

ACTION ITEM: Another young family man with ALS, "Lou Gherig's Disease" - UPDATED

I hope they raise the fundraiser goal.

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SUBSCRIPTION FORM

Posted on 3 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Some options



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For a one time donation…

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Prayers for a priest after suicide. Priests, drugs, and you.

Posted on 3 February 2020 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Prayers for a priest after suicide. Priests, drugs, and you.A terrible thing happened recently.  A young priest, almost certainly reacting badly to medication, committed suicide.  Fr. Evan Harkins, of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, had been on medication for an ailment.  It seems to have affected him in a profoundly negative way.

I know I can count on you readers to pray for him and for his family and friends.

There is a lesson that comes from this.   Medications can do really strange things to your mind.

In the wake of Fr. Harkins’ death, the Abbess of Gower – you will remember the great consecration of the Abbey and Abbess – sent out a letter which described the bad experience of some of the sisters who had some medication.  HERE  She writes about how medications for other things induced in her sisters suicidal thoughts.

Also, I recommend that you read the sermon given by the Bishop of Kansas City, Most. Rev. James Johnston, at the funeral Mass for Fr. Harkins.  It is exceptional.  HERE  The bishop spoke, with permission of the family, about how medication for stomach problems worked negatively on Fr. Harkins.

Will you please pray for your priests?   Some of your priests are having a hard time.  Stress, medication, the deteriorating state of the Church, other factors can weigh heavily on them.  May I recommend, please, a prayer for priests daily?  I posted a link to such a prayer on the sidebar of this blog.   Also, ladies, please consider the Seven Sisters Apostolate.

Daily Prayer for Priests

O Almighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the Enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.

O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests, for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.

But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted, and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me, or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.

IMPRIMATUR
+Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, 6 September 2018

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