VIDEO: Fr. Murray, Prof. Royal on EWTN on Francis’ latest PPP (Papal Plane Presser) comments

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My friends Fr. Murray and Prof. Royal were on EWTN with Raymond Arroyo’s The World Over.

They discussed Francis’ comments during the latest PPP (papal plane presser).

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

Posted in Francis, The Drill | Tagged , ,
3 Comments

@FatherZ responds to @PhilipPullella of Reuters about the Holy Spirit and the elections of Popes

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I had retweeted my friend Fr. Blake’s tweet.

I agree with Fr. Blake.  Francis has a mean streak.  I get that.  Francis is a human being.  He’s going to have bad days.  Francis’ labeling of people who love the Church’s Tradition as rigid, and the suggestion that there is something psychologically wrong with them is just plain mean.  I have in my mind’s eye the episode of him mocking an altar boy who had his hands together, as he was taught, or gossiping derisively about a priest getting a cassock and Roman hat at Euroclero after having inveighed against gossiping many times.  How about his drubbing of the Cardinals and Bishops of the Roman Curia as a Christmas gift a few years ago?  Francis scoffed at a spiritual bouquet people offered him.   He ridiculed people in Chile who were horrified by a bishop who covered up child abuse.

These are not massive ecclesial decisions (like abandoning Catholics in China or wiping out the John Paul II Institute or refusing to answer officially submitted dubia or avoding transparency and alacrity in investigating a pernicious ex-cardinal), but they are signals.

Drop a stone on a someone’s head from but a short distance and it stings, but it doesn’t do lasting harm.  When a stone is dropped from a great height, it does a lot of damage.  Someone you barely know might make mean remark and you brush it off.  But if Father does it at the parish?  Ouch.  And if it is the POPE?

Long-time Vatican newsie for Reuters, Phil Pullella took Fr. Blake’s comment too far and got too far out over his skiis.  Phil dragged me into it because of my retweet.  I’ll bet other people retweeted Fr. Blake, but Phil only picked on me.  Interesting, no?

Phil, in response to Fr. Blake (and to me, apparently), tweeted:

Oh dear.

First, the Holy Spirit doesn’t sleep.  As I wrote elsewhere today, the RUACH is still blowing through the Church.

Acknowledging that Phil was just using a figure of speech, we move on.

The Holy Spirit might offer guidance to Electors who, with their mouths at least, say they want guidance, but that doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit is “acting on”, actually guiding all the Electors in a conclave.

The Vengeance of Urban VI
by Jean-Paul Laurens

The Electors can vote according to many motivations, some holy, some not so holy, some guided by the Holy Spirit, some guided by another not-so-holy spirit.

John XII (+964).  This Pope gave land to his mistress, had people killed, and was in turn murdered by a man who caught him in flagrante with his wife. The Holy Spirit guided the electors in this election, right?

Not so much, you say?

How about Urban VI (+1389)? This predecessor of Francis didn’t just have harsh words for priests.  He had cardinals who conspired against him tortured and then lamented that he didn’t hear enough screaming. They played for keeps back in the day.

Clearly chosen by the Holy Spirit!

And there’s Alexander VI, Borgia, (+1503).  Chosen by the Holy Spirit? Are you suuuuuure?

Entering the modern conclave the Cardinal Electors pray, inter alia:

“Ecclesia universa, nobis in oratione communi coniuncta, gratiam Spiritus Sancti instanter exorat, ut dignus Pastor universi gregis Christi a nobis eligatur…. The whole church, joined to us in common prayer, earnestly prays for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that a worthy Shepherd of the whole flock of Christ be elected by us.”

“By us.”

The Holy Spirit inspires, but the men are free to choose.. and they do.

Once upon a time, Card. Ratzinger was was interviewed by a Bavarian TV network. He was asked:

INTERVIEWER: Your Eminence, you are very familiar with church history and know well what has happened in papal elections…. Do you really believe that the Holy Spirit plays a role in the election of the pope?
RATZINGER: I would not say so in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the pope, because there are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit would obviously not have picked. I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.”

In the case of Alexander VI, a real piece of work in his personal life, we might see what Ratzinger was talking about.  The role of the Holy Spirit is to protect the Church from disaster.

If you look at A6’s legislation and other documents, if you stroll through the Bullarium Romanum for his pontificate, you will find that he never put his foot wrong in doctrine.   Moreover, on his deathbed he made a good confession and received the last sacraments in the state of grace, which every time it happens is surely helped by the Holy Spirit.  We want sinners to convert, right?  And big sinners are the cause of greater rejoicing, right? Perhaps Alex 6 was chosen by the Holy Spirit so that his death could be emulated by his inept or wicked successors?  So that they knew that it was possible, in the end, to repent?  Augustine of Hippo, commenting on the washing of the feet of the Apostles, made the point that Christ was teaching them – certainly Peter the most – that they were going to get their feet dirty in the service of the Lord.  They were going to get the world’s muck on themselves.  Thus, He taught them that they had to stick to Him to be able to carry out their work in the world.

Or maybe the electors of Alexander VI just blew off the Holy Spirit and acted from more worldly motives.

Enough.  Having a Church is messy and running one, in the best of times, is like entering the fog of war.

The Holy Spirit didn’t write “Bergoglio” on the ballots any more than He wrote “Sarto” or “Wojtyla” or “Borgia” for that matter.  The Holy Spirit did not guide the hands of the Electors in automatic writing any more than He did with the Evangelists or Paul or the Old Testament writers.   He offered graces.  We are all free to accept or reject God’s offers.

There’s no certainty that the Holy Spirit truly guided the majority in the election of any Pope.  We can only go by the facts on the ground.   It might be more probable that He did in one case or pretty obvious in another that He didn’t.  Is the pontificate a disaster?  That might be a clue.  Would it have been an even worse disaster had this or that Pope not been elected?  How can we know that? The Holy Spirit can, but we can’t.  Did a pontificate usher in reform and result in greater holiness among the Church’s members?  That might be a clue.

What happened under the pontificate?  That might be a starting point.  Do we want to lift that rock and look?

You might object that “It’s too early to tell! We need years, even after a pontificate, to tell!”

Sometimes it really is too early to tell.  Sometimes it isn’t.  Which is it with this pontificate?  Do you know?  I don’t.

The Church is indefectible till the end. The Holy Spirit will make sure that no Pope can hurt the Church too much.  That’s about all we can say.

Some people think that we get the priests and bishops that we deserve or that we need for correction or for punishment or purification or reform.

I firmly believe that God raises up saints for different needs and different times by offering certain people extraordinary graces.

Does God actively raise up people or events to afflict the Church, knowing that they will do evil, for the sake of correction and the increase of grace and eventual good and glory?  Correptio et gratia?

Only God knows how that works in actuality.

We had a little confusion about God’s active and permission will a while back in this pontificate with Francis’ remarks about God willing a diversity of religions – impossible in view of His positive will, possible only in view of His permissive will.

What was the Holy Spirit’s role in 2013?  What’s at work in the election of any Pope?

I’m going with Ratzinger on this one.  How about you, Mr. Pullella?

Posted in Francis, The Drill | Tagged , , ,
10 Comments

Our Lady of Sorrows Project: 4th Sorrow – Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

So far…

1st Sorrow – The Prophecy of Simeon
2nd Sorrow – The Flight into Egypt
3rd Sorrow – The loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem

Now we turn to…

Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary. (Tradition – not attested in Scripture)

This is also the Fourth Station of the Way of the Cross.

It is entirely reasonable that if Mary was at the foot of the Cross, then she was also somewhere along the route upon which our bleeding and beaten Savior was flogged and cruelly compelled.  It is entirely reasonable that she would have raised her voice and, so, the Lord spotted her in the crowd.

In 2005, Joseph Card. Ratzinger provided the texts for the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, for their praying at the Colosseum.  Remember the pictures of John Paul II, dying, seated and watching on TV?

Ratzinger begins his meditation on the Fourth Sorrow of Mary, the Fourth Station of the Via Crucis, by quoting what we looked at in my remarks on the 1st Sorrow, the prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2 that a rhomphaia would pierce Mary’s heart.

With his usual ability to discover new facets of the jewels of our faith, Ratzinger underscores that, at a certain point, Mary simply steps aside, out of the picture, as her Son embraced a new “family”.  That process was foreshadowed in the last Sorrow, when He tarried in Jerusalem and then, in front of Joseph and those assembled, spoke of His other Father.  Mary also had to stand outside a house Christ was visiting, trying to see Him. She probably heard Christ say, “Who is my mother?”  They are my mother. (Matthew 12:46-50)  That’s also something she would have “kept in her heart” to ponder in the long dark nights.  And it was her Son who said it.  She is being emptied, in a way, as He was, to take her humanity, and later to be crucified.

Fulton Sheen wrote that with each Sorrow, Christ was the one driving the “sword” into Mary, with each Sorrow more deeply, each Sorrow a different kind of pain.  “Some new area of the soul is touched that before was virginal to grief.  In each dolor it is the Son Who is the executioner, but He always makes His edge the sharper.”

Sharper.  More piercing.  St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his Stations wrote that when they looked at each other,

“their looks became as so many arrows to wound those hearts which loved each other so tenderly.”

But, the fact is, though she is silent after Cana, she was still there, somewhere along the road the Lord took in His earthly ministry, while He was healing the lame and teaching in synagogues and casting out demons. She wanted to be close to Him.   She wanted to be close to Him now, in His driven agony.

What mother wouldn’t bear her child’s pain, if only she could do?  Sheen says: “If carrying one’s own Cross is the condition of being Christ’s follower, then the condition of being the Savior’s Mother is to carry the Savior’s Cross.”  So, she longs for His Cross as her own Cross, mediating His pain as she will come to mediate graces.

If this is so, friends, if being Christian means “taking up one’s Cross and following Him”, then this is also the condition of the whole Church as a Church.  She is Holy Mother, the Church, Bride of Christ and Body.  If Christ had His Passion, our Church must have her Passion, and we who are sensitive and faithful with her.  I am a crucifer.  You are a crucifer.  And the Church will be pierced by bitter swords of sorrow, and the bitterest swords are those wielded by those to whom more has been given, who should love all the more.

Mary wanted to be near Jesus, bear with Him, in this hour more than at any other moment of their lives together. The end of the mission was nigh.

Would Mary have been intimidated by the crowds and the guards?  At the beginning of her ministry with and to Jesus, the angel said, “Do not be afraid!” (Luke 1:30).  Mary could hear – listen – differently than we do.  Note that when angels appear to others, they usually say, “Don’t be afraid.” People tend to do terrified face-plants when angels show up.  The first thing Gabriel said to Mary was “Hail!”.  Only later, when describing her own ministry to and with the Lord, would the angel say, “Don’t be afraid!”

This surely is the fear-filled moment.  She is not afraid.  She is exultantly horrified, eager in dread.  They are almost there.

Mary is really the only one present on that original Way of the Cross who has a fuller picture, knows something more than everyone else about what’s happening.  She still had to have faith, but her faith was so much informed, which made her hope and love the stronger.  She can both be filled with dread and be eager.

And yet – at the same time – she remains, quintessentially, a Mother watching her Son’s bitter agony.

She ponders in her lacerated Immaculate motherly Heart a new way to share in salvific pain.

She found Him in the Temple talking about a heavenly Father.  No surprise there.  But then she stood outside as He called others his “mother”.  A single scene, but exemplary in her life, in those chapters that are silent about her.  Now, “bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, she beheld her tender Child all with bloody scourges rent.”

Mary prepared, practiced for this “hour” for 33 years.

She is utterly in God’s hands in a new way, feeling, as Sheen said, a new kind of sorrow.

Now she knows what being truly helpless is.

I cannot do better than this image from Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ.  He conflates a memory from Christ’s childhood with one of His falls along the way, and combines the meeting with His mother – in a stroke of true inspiration – with the words from Revelation 21:5.

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

I close these poor remarks with the same tears which that single scene has always drawn.  And so, thank you for bearing with me.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” And he who sat upon the throne said,

“Behold, I make all things new.”

5th Sorrow – The Crucifixion of Jesus

Posted in Our Solitary Boast | Tagged , , , , ,
4 Comments

“This is the time God chose for us. Get up off the ground!” Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Time for A Rant.

I know that many of you readers are upset by what is going on in the Church.  May I repeat some advice?

Remember that Popes come and go.  There are good Popes and bad Popes, important Popes and forgettable Popes.  Men pick them, not the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit’s role in their election is to make sure that the Pope isn’t a disaster for the Church.

The RUACH hasn’t stopped either in the Church or in your soul.

No one promised us at baptism that life in the Church was going to be easy.  This world has its fell Prince, who hates us and the Church and who works relentlessly against her, from without and from within by his agents.

It should not be a surprise to any Catholic that there is chaos in the Church from time to time.  It stands to reason that things will get rocky.  This is a WAR, after all!   War is messy.

You are a member of the Church Militant, and, therefore, you … YOU… are NOT exempt from “military service” in the Church.  You have your own role to play in this spiritual war.  You fulfill your duty according to Religion by offering worship to God and by living your vocation properly.

Our great Captain, Christ, provided for us pilgrim soldiers in this dire war.  He gave us sacraments.  You, dear troops of Christ, have been baptized into His Corps (Body).   He gave you other sacraments to help you as well.  Consider your CONFIRMATION.

Confirmation strengthens us to make the hard call and then stand firm when we are challenged in our Christian living.  We can call upon the power of this sacrament, which has imparted an indelible character, like the potter’s mark of ownership, into our souls.  Confirmation is an ongoing reality in our lives just as the Pentecost event is an ongoing reality in the Church.

In these troubled and troubling times, make a conscious choice to call upon that mighty sacrament you received.  Activate it. The sacrament will be mighty in you when you are in the state of grace.  Therefore,…

GO TO CONFESSION!

While there is life there is hope.

Every single bizarro thing that happens is an opportunity to be tested and to love God in your vocation.  Get up!  Something really rotten happens?  Oorah!  “Blessed be the Name of the Lord!”

With every crazy occurrence, you have a new chance to be better informed about the faith, more faithful in your life, more trusting in God’s providence.  Every single loony-tune story and antic from the top down must not bring you down or even go to waste.

Think about each seeming set back as a personal challenge to become stronger, more dedicated, more motivated to work on your principle faults and pursue the good, the true and the beautiful.  Engage each and every negative with greater resolve.  Let every burden be a grace-filled way to strengthen your knees and hands and backbone.

The RUACH hasn’t stopped either in the Church or in your soul.

Bring it on, bad guys. They want some “lío”? We’ve got some “lío”.

You are amazing, strong warriors in this vale of tears and nothing and nobody can beat you down.  You have dependable resources and tools.  You have thousands of fellow Catholics praying with and for you. You have the sacraments.

Think of what that means!  You have the sacraments.  And you know how to use them!

You’ve been gifted with awesome spiritual armor and gifts.  Clean them up.  Put them on.  Forward!

If you feel like the antics of prelates and popes have knocked the wind out of you, bashed you down daily, get up off the ground.  Suck it up, buttercup. This is serious stuff we are dealing with.  This is the time God chose for us.  These times, not some other time, some other ecclesial fantasy land.  Therefore, if we are faithful and persevere, God will give us every actual grace we need.

Stand up, stick your chin out and move with purpose.

Start with this:

“Almighty God my heavenly Father, You knew me before the creation of the cosmos and You wanted me to come into existence to bring You glory.  Of all the possible universes You could have created, You created this one and You called me into it at exactly the time and place You chose for me so that I could fulfill my part in Your unfathomable plan.  You willed that I have the honor to be baptized into the Church You designed and You maintain for our well-being.  You willed that I receive the Body and Blood of Your Son and the indwelling of Your Spirit.   You willed that I should also be confirmed so that our relationship be even deeper and that I might be an even better instrument of Your will.  I now call upon that mighty Sacrament of Confirmation.  Through it make me strong to bear whatever burdens I must endure in Your service.  Make me wise to recognize accurately and then strong to resist, resolute, whatever is out of harmony with Your will as manifested especially in the beautiful Tradition You have guided in the authoritative, infallible and indefectible Church. Even if that disharmony should come from those whom you have endowed with the grace of Orders and seated even in the highest places of teaching, governing and sanctifying, make me steadfast.  With confidence in Your plan for me I ask this for myself and for the brethren through the Holy Spirit’s Gifts and in the Name of Jesus Christ Your Son, who lives and reigns with You, ever one God, world without end.  Amen.”

 

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Be The Maquis, GO TO CONFESSION, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged , ,
16 Comments

A roundup on Francis and “schism”

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Like chimps flinging their own poo, the screeching papalatrous catholic Left have been launching the word “schism” at their faithful and concerned Catholic targets.

Here are some thoughts from smart observers about the latest jaw-dropping PPP (papal plane presser).  Transcript HERE

First, Rod Dreher (former Catholic – not a smart move, that, and reversible) has a blistering examination of the PPP, during which Francis himself used the word “schism” and tried to explain what it meant.

A few excerpts from Dreher:

[…]

[Francis]

To criticize without wanting to hear the response and without dialogue is not wanting the good of the Church. It is to go backward to a fixed idea, to change the pope, to change the style, to create schism, this is clear no? A fair criticism is always well received, at least by me.

[Dreher] Oh, brother. It has been years, but he still hasn’t answered the dubia, which were formal requests, made through the Church’s system, for theological clarification. And he has not explained in any detail his role in rehabilitating Ted McCarrick, or answered any of Archbishop Vigano’s pointed, detailed criticisms. The media have allowed him to get away with it, of course, but it is impossible to take Pope Francis seriously when he spites his Catholic critics while ducking legitimate criticisms and questions they offer (and yes, some of them are in bad faith).

[…]

That pretty much nails it.

More.

[…]

[Francis]

And also there is the behaviorist ideology, that is, the primacy of a sterile morality over the morality of the People of God, who even the pastors should guide, the flock, between grace and sin. This is evangelical morality.

Instead, a morality of ideology, such as Pelagianism, to put it that way, makes you rigid and today we have many, many schools of rigidity inside the Church. They are not schism, but they are pseudo-schismatic Christian paths that in the end finish badly. When you see rigid Christians, bishops, priests, behind them are problems; there isn’t the holiness of the Gospel. For this we should be meek, not severe, with people who are tempted by these attacks, because they are going through a problem, and we should accompany them with meekness.

[Dreher] Yes, Holy Francis, meek and mild. The man brutalizes those he sees as his enemies. He’s eviscerated the John Paul II Institute in Rome. And now the new team will include an Italian priest and moral theologian who favors contraception, and who has recently said that sex within gay relationships can be a moral good. Even if you agree with that position, you have to be honest enough to admit that it is very nearly a 180 degree reversal from what the Catholic Church has authoritatively thought since forever.

Yet theologically conservative American Catholics are the ones fomenting schism? Wow.

[…]

Moving to another writer, Catholic World Report Carl Olson offers thoughts on Francis’ style.

[…]

Thirdly, while Francis makes distinctions between good and bad critics, he and his closest collaborators (not to mention his defenders on Twitter, who are equal parts passive and aggressive) rarely, if ever, really address or consider good criticism in a mature, pastoral manner. In many cases they misrepresent it or attack those who put it forward in good faith. Put another way, Francis and company make it quite clear, in the end, that any and all criticism is motivated by some irrational, ideological, political, and unCatholic hatred of Francis. They would rather stonewall, deflect, and even insult rather than actually dialogue. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it several dozen times.

Some of the key signs of passive-aggressive attitudes, according to Psychology Today, are the silent treatment (“refusing to answer any questions from the person”), subtle insults, and stubbornness. I hope we can all agree that these are not good qualities for anyone to have; they certainly aren’t what we hope to see in a pope. But I don’t think we will be seeing any changes. The die is cast; rigidly so.

[…]

Then there’s Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture:

[…]

“I am not afraid of schisms,” Pope Francis told reporters during his latest airplane press conference.

Well, I am. And I’m afraid of any Roman Pontiff who isn’t afraid of splitting the universal Church.

[…]

“First of all, criticism always helps, always,” the Pope said. At the outset of his African voyage, a papal spokesman had said that Francis is “honored” by criticism. Now the Pope himself told Horowitz, “I always benefit from criticism” and “a fair criticism is always well received, at least by me.” Really? Having covered Vatican affairs throughout this pontificate, I cannot recall a single instance in which Pope Francis made a gracious public response to any critic, on any topic. But I can easily recall dozens of occasions on which he lashed out as his critics—characterizing them as Pharisees and hypocrites, “doctors of the law,” rigid and uncharitable.

“To criticize without wanting to hear a response and without getting into dialogue is not to have the good of the Church at heart,” the Pope continued. But it is he who refused to respond to his most famous critics, the four cardinals who submitted the dubia.

[…]

At the same time, a writer for the catholic Left at The Bitter Pill (aka The Tablet, aka RU-486), Christopher Lamb, offers his own incredible view of that same PPP.

This is exemplary!

[…]

On the papal plane returning from Madagascar, Pope Francis offered something similar to his opponents, found largely in the Roman Curia, wealthy groups in the United States and traditionalist networks.

Speaking to reporters, the Pope made an appeal to those opposed to the direction of his pontificate: make constructive criticism in a spirit of dialogue, and not “criticism of the arsenic pills” where stones are thrown by hidden hands.

He is perturbed by “under the table” knifings from those who “smile at you, letting you see their teeth and then they stab you in the back.” These attacks, the Pope stressed, are driven by an “ideology detached from doctrine,” and an “elitist separation” from ordinary Catholics (the vast majority who support Francis). The result is schism.

“The schismatics always have one thing in common: they separate themselves from the people, from the faith of the people of God,” he pointed out.

[…]

It was Francis who demolished the John Paul II Institute and appointed a guy who thinks that contraception and homosexual acts are okay.   Why would any of the faithful object to that?  How dare they raise concerns!  They must be “schismatics”!  The Instrumentum Laboris for the upcoming Goat Rodeo … errr… Synod on the Amazon obviously has Francis’ approval.  Hence, they will talk about the spirituality of bugs and trees and embrace of pantheistic syncretism.  But don’t scratch your head or even suggest that that doesn’t seem very Catholic.  If you do, “YOU’RE SCHISMATIC!”  Wasn’t it Francis who said that, since “there is already unity” among Christians, then we shouldn’t have to “wait for theologians to come to agreement on the Eucharist”, and that those who interpret Amoris laetitia to admit adulterers to Communion are right?  Do NOT, however, even think to raise your hand and ask how that’s consistent with Catholic dogma.

[…]

Despite being on the receiving end of a brutal and sustained guerrilla war from his opponents, Francis is not trying to shut down those who disagree with him. He is the one who has opened up a free-wheeling discussion inside the Church and who calls on bishops to talk to him and others with “parrhesia” (the Greek word for speaking frankly.)

This is a Pope who does not seek the security of old modes of the papal office, where the temptation is to stamp out any dissent but seeks his leadership authority from witnessing to the Gospel, which includes the humility to admit mistakes.

[…]

Christopher Lamb, ladies and gentlemen, graduate of the Baghdad Bob School of Journalism.

Of course he is writing for the sort of audience that still reads The Bitter Pill.

BTW… If I recall correctly, wasn’t it Francis who upbraided Catholics in Chile who were complaining about that corrupt bishop?  “There is not one single piece of evidence. It is all slander. Is that clear?”  As it turns out, it wasn’t slander.

Lamb goes on with the expected cliches by bringing in EWTN, Tim Busch, Card. Burke, Card. Müller.  They’re bad people and, of course, SCHISMATIC!

It’s Bizarro World on the catholic Left.

Posted in B as in B. S as in S., Francis, GO TO CONFESSION, Liberals, Pò sì jiù, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged ,
15 Comments

What is the TMSM up to? Spiffing new BLACK vestments! Photos.

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’ll start with a bid for funds for the Tridentine Mass Society of the Diocese of Madison.  In this weird time of ecclesial demolition it is hard to know where your monetary support should go for constructive purposes.

Always remember the TMSM – 501(c)(3).

What are we doing?  Right now we have two vestment projects underway.

One is a Gammarelli in Rome.  We have having a new Pontifical set made for Pontifical Requiem Masses at the Throne.  There will be a matching pall.   They made a sample with the trim, fringe and lining so that I could see what it would be like.  We will use this as a book stand cover.

This is now underway after the traditional August break in Rome.   The guys at Gammarelli sent photos of the cutting of the black fabric.

Here are a few of the best shots.

This one I’ll leave large, so you can right-click and see the fabric close up.

The great Stefano at work.

I think this is the hand of the legendary Max.

Yes, that’s Max.  Always cufflinks and narrow sleeves.

So black is under construction.

Yesterday, a priest friend of mine was in Gammarelli while they were cutting the fabric.  He sent his own photo with the caption (that must have amused Max):

I stopped in at Gammarelli and purchased these right out from under some poor sucker who thought they were being made for him!

Meanwhile… I also have these underway.   This will be a set for Low Mass and Sung Mass.  We have a green Pontifical set and a beautiful green Solemn set.  I don’t like using pieces of vestments out of large sets because they sustain wear unevenly.

In this shot, the ribbons look black, but are really a dark green.  I choose to go with black anyway.

And the lining?  Burgundy.

That’s a little of what we are up to in the TMSM.

We could use your support!

Those wishing to make a tax-deductible donation to support the Tridentine Mass Society of Madison, a 501(c)(3) organization, can do so without any service fees extracted by mailing a check to:

Tridentine Mass Society of Madison
733 Struck St.
P.O. Box 44603
Madison, WI 53744-4603

Or, you can donate via PayPal (which does extract a service fee), using the button below:

 

UPDATE:

They are cutting fabric for the pall.  It will be in black velvet.

BTW… speaking of black vestments, over the Labor Day break I was on a trip with a group of Catholics who like to have daily Mass.  Here is the portable altar made by St. Joseph’s apprentice decked out for a Requiem.

Note the miniature antependium!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged ,
4 Comments

Australia: New legislation – priests must violate the Seal or face jail

Posted on 11 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It believe it is more important now than ever that we return to the old-fashioned confessionals with a complete physical barrier between the penitent and confessor, with a window having a fixed grate and a curtain or something to obscure view that the penitent cannot touch or move.  Thus, anonymity of the penitent is secured the penitent has no physical access to the priest.

I shudder at the thought of what I call “law suit rooms”, especially those where the penitent winds up between the priest and the door and there is no window.

From the Australian site The Age:

Laws forcing priests to report child abuse passed in Victorian parliament

The Victorian government says it hopes it does not have to jail priests who fail to report child abuse revealed in the confession box.

The state’s Parliament passed laws on Tuesday carrying sentences of up to three years for failing to report abuse, [for violating the Seal of Confession] but Premier Daniel Andrews said on Wednesday morning that he did not know of any convictions under Victoria’s broader mandatory reporting laws, in place for 25 years.

The Premier said the laws, and the new legislation passed on Tuesday, were intended to create a culture in which all abuse or mistreatment of children was reported, regardless of how it came to light.  [It’s an attack on the priesthood and on the Church.]

Mr Andrews said the bill, which passed the upper house on Tuesday night with bipartisan support, was intended to send a message all the way to the top of the Catholic Church in Rome.  [See?  This statement is superfluous, if “Rome” isn’t the target.]

“The most important thing is to send a message that the law is to be taken seriously, if people don’t obey the law, then the penalties are very significant,” the Premier said.

“The culture is one where people have taken the laws and their responsibilities in terms of mandatory reporting very seriously.”

The changes will bring religious leaders into line with police, teachers, doctors, nurses, school counsellors and youth justice workers who are required to report child abuse to authorities.

“The special treatment for churches has ended and child abuse must be reported,” Child Protection Minister Luke Donnellan said in the wake of Tuesday night’s Parliamentary vote.

[…]

“They’ll have to get the prisons ready,” declared Melbourne’s best-known Catholic priest, Father Bob Maguire, on Wednesday.

Asked whether the clergy would refuse to report abuse to the police, he said: “I presume so. Well, they have to in principle.”

[…]

But Mr Andrews said the state government now expected church workers to obey the law of Victoria, not rules written in Rome.

“I’ve made it very clear that the law of our state is written by the Parliament of Victoria, it’s not made in Rome and there are very significant penalties for anybody and everybody who breaks the Victorian law,” the Premier said.

[…]

The Northern Territory and South Australia have introduced mandatory reporting laws to which clergy are subject, and Western Australia and Tasmania have committed to doing so.

Mr Andrews, a practising Catholic, announced the policy in November, during the 2018 state election campaign.

St. John Nepomuk, pray for us.

Bl. Miguel Pro, pray for us.

 

 

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Priests and Priesthood, Religious Liberty, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , ,
27 Comments

What the papalatrous are doing with the term “schism”

Posted on 11 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Sometimes I have to triage my time.  For example, I can do some reading about “chaos theory” or “fundamental force concepts”. On the other hand, I can read the transcript of a papal presser aboard an airplane.   Either way, I have to really strain to figure out what the heck anything means.

The National Catholic Register has a piece about the latest surreal papal plane presser (PPP) HERE.

I’ll rant a little.

A lot of people are writing to me about a strange comment made by Francis during the PPP about “schism”.

It seems that Francis said:

I am not afraid of schisms, I pray that there will be none, because what is at stake is people’s spiritual health. Let there be dialogue, let there be correction if there is an error, but the schismatic path is not Christian.

This is preceded and followed by various ramblings which drive me back to the relative ease of deciphering the interplay of weak and strong forces in quantum  physics.

Did, as my questioners ask, Francis say that “schisms don’t scare me!”, as if to say, “Bring on the schisms!”?

I doubt it.

The more reasonable explanation is that Francis just sort of talks.  He has a microphone and he rambles.

I think what he meant to say, probably, is that he doesn’t think that schisms will happen.  He’s not worrying about it.

Whether that’s what he really wants or not is another matter.  If you read biographies, there is a history of division when he is involved.  Also, he has probably intentionally fed energy to the Anglophone movement to brand loyal critics and faithful Catholics as “schismatic”.

Every self-respecting and faithful Catholic has an innate horror of schism, which is a manifest violation of charity on many levels that ultimately leads to heresy.

That said, “schism” is a term which the New catholic Red Guards have instrumentalized in order to provoke something they hope for.

They, in fact, are the ones who want the schism.   In mock horror of “schism”, they seeks to bring it about.

Libs, the Left, have had schismatic tendencies for decades, during the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict.  Hence, “schism” is their default position.  This is where they automatically tend.  This is, as a result, how they see people on the other side of the issues.  They were perpetually schismatic for decades and still are.  Hence, every body else is.

What they are doing started out from these hard-wired impulses.  Now, however, their version of catholic Deep State has coordinated their messaging.  The Central Committee of El Pueblo, as it were, has seen the potential that “schism” talk can have. Remember, they are all about dividing, not unifying, breaking, not building.  So, the CC of El P has given a signal to the troops in the streets, the street thugs of the New catholic Red Guards.  The NcRGs are now marching up and down the streets, pumping their arms up and down with copies of Amoris and Laudato, confronting anyone and everyone who questions the movements of the pontificate.  They specialize in targeting certain figures for vituperation and intimidation.  They call for their firing.  They call their bishops to tattle and to bully.  They drum the drums and stoke the fires of conflict relentlessly.  They spread Disinformation, intended to deceive.

What they hope will happen is that those conservative or traditional Catholics with whom they are now incessantly picking a fight with fighting words like “schism” will eventually get fed up and will make imprudent statements and gestures out of frustration.  There are professional provocateurs among them.  They run hither and thither on Twitter and other venues posting their Large Character Posters about

In China, during the Cultural Revolution, when the Red Guards virtually rioted, police who tried to gain control were denounced as “counter-revolutionaries”.  Eventually even the head of the National Police shrugged at the violence of the Red Guards and said that beating people to death in the street was “no big deal”.   So the Guards hunted down anyone suspected of being “capitalist roaders” with views that didn’t coincide with the ever moving targets of the positions of the powers that be.

You can see how this is building in Anglophone circles.  Indications were sent out to the New catholic Red Guards in the form of loony notions about the American Church burbled by Antonio “2+2=4” Spadaro, SJ, in La civiltà cattolica.  Nonsense essay, but filled with signals to the cells.  The same Spadaro travelled to these USA to Boston to coordinate messaging with key figures present by invitation only.  Thereafter, slowly, a narrative was spun up out of thin air implying that anyone who didn’t think that adulterers should receive Communion, or that not everything that Francis uttered was the equivalent of the 13th apparition of Vishnu, was probably a crypto-schismatic.

I am not sure how to create and embed a “thread” from Twitter, but Christopher Lamb, a wannabe New catholic Red Guard member, offered some logorhea about this “schism” tactic.

I made a screenshot of the thread.  It’s small, but legible.

Crazy stuff.

Remember… they want a schism.  In an incredibly ironic charade, the gang that despised and resisted John Paul II and Benedict XVI for decades with their heterodoxy are now fashioning themselves as the defenders of the papacy.  They’ve created a new orthodoxy, which shifts with every papal plane presser or document with vague authority.

If you have the stomach for this, there are some figures who are driving this.

Austen Ivereigh – various, but always Twitter
Michael Sean “Madame Defarge” Winters at the Fishwrap
Massimo “Beans” Faggioli especially on Twitter
James Martin, SJ especially at Amerika
Bobby Mickens at La Croix International

Posted in Liberals, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged
11 Comments

Our Lady of Sorrows Project: 3rd Sorrow – The loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem

Posted on 11 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

So far…

1st Sorrow – The Prophecy of Simeon
2nd Sorrow – The Flight into Egypt

Now we turn to…

The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)

In the Presentation, the Lord – the New Temple – comes to His Temple for the first time.

At Passover of His 12th year, He comes to His Temple for the Second Time.

So far I have tried to underscore in the first two offerings that Mary’s Sorrows were also shot through with joy.  Mary, humanity’s solitary boast, was not disturbed by passions in the way that we are.  Her deep commitment to the plan of God would have given her great confidence in the face of even catastrophic events.

And so, keep in mind that this 3rd Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin Mary is also the 5th Joyful Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary.

Mary and Joseph were pious and desirous to fulfill the Law.  So, just has they brought Christ to the Temple for his circumcision – when Mary heard Simeon’s prophecies about the piercing of her heart – now they have brought Christ to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the Law at Passover.  One can suppose that in this 12th year after the Lord’s Birth, she was still pondering that first visit to the Temple, the first shedding of His Blood, the ominous quality of Simeon’s words.

Luke describes what happened in chapter 2. Christ is 12.

Christ has gone in a caravan with his Holy Family up to Jerusalem for Passover.

Under the Law, at 13 years all boys were bound to go up to Jerusalem for Passover. However, this was often anticipated for mature boys. It is likely that this is the first time the Lord, the New Temple, has seen with more mature eyes the old Temple.

When they were to return to Nazareth, the caravan departed Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph believed that their Son was somewhere in the good sized group. Why wouldn’t He be? Try to imagine how responsible and diligent the Lord was. The caravan departs, but Our Lord “tarries” (hypomeno) in the Temple. After a day of travel Mary and Joseph figure out that Jesus not with them, so they rushed back to Jerusalem, no doubt seeking and inquiring along the way. They find him after three anxiety-filled days. They enter the Temple and see him where He tarried, with the learned scholars of Talmud and Mishna, engaged in questions and answers about interpretation of Scriptures.

The Greek “hypomeno” can mean “linger, tarry, stay back” or also, “persevere” especially in trials, “to bear ill treatment bravely”.

Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Do you suppose that Mary and Joseph heard the Lord’s colloquy?  They wouldn’t have been surprised.  There is no support for this in Scripture, but I picture them finding the Lord amidst the scholars and both of them stopping and listening for a bit before interrupting during a stunned pause.

Remember… before Mary acts and speaks, she listens and ponders.  That’s her pattern in Scripture.

“How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Where were they in the Temple complex?  The sight of the Temple, after the simplicity of Nazareth, would have made an immense impression on the young Lord.  The Temple was literally clad with gold. Where there was no gold, it was brilliantly white. Before the Temple itself, within which was the Holy of Holies, was the Court with its great altar with four “horns” at the corners at the top of a huge stairway of 12 steps, below which was the place for slaughter. Only priests and Levites could enter there. Up these steps the priests would have pass the silver and gold basins with the blood of the Passover lambs to be thrown against the altar. The Temple faced East. To the East of the main Court, though the Nicanor Gate, was the Courtyard of the Women. To the North and South were buildings and gates, bounded by terraces. It would have been on one of these terraces that the young Jesus was found by Mary and Joseph amidst the Scripture scholars and theologians, “Doctors of the Law”, “nomikoi”. Babylonian Talmud says this is where the Sanhedrin and scholars gathered on sabbaths and during festivals. Hence, because this is still the festive time following the Passover, this is where He was discovered and where He spoke the first words of His that are recorded in Scripture.

The Lord is 12. He has now seen the slaughter of the lambs as the Psalms were sung and how they were then prepared in cruciform for roasting. The Lord’s human intellect and memory are learning in human ways, but they are informed by His divine nature. Having experienced His first Passover, His thoughts have turned from His earthly family to His Father’s House, the Temple, with which He, the New Temple, thrummed in the resonance of fulfillment. So powerful was the Passover and experience of the Temple that He left His earthly family and tarried there.

To get something of the anxious sorrow of Mary, remember that Jesus was daily with Mary and Joseph, hardly apart for any length of time in their flight from Herod, in Egypt, on the road home and in daily life. Suddenly, for the first time, the Boy whom the murderous Herod had hunted is missing. St Alphonsus of Liguori, writing of this Sorrow of Mary, said,

“He who is born blind is little aware of the pain of being deprived of the light of day; but to him who has once had sight and enjoyed the light, it is a great sorrow to find himself deprived of it by blindness.“

In The World’s First Love, Fulton Sheen wrote:

“Mary lost Jesus only in mystical darkness of the soul, not in the moral blackness of an evil heart. Her loss was a veiling of His face, not a flight. But she does teach us that, when we lose God, we must not wait for Him to come back. We must go out in search of Him; and, to the joy of every sinner, she knows where He can be found!”

Because they were seeing the events only as if through a glass, darkly, Mary and Joseph sought Jesus with anxiety. Perhaps they worried that He was dead, as any parent might.

They find Him, after three portentous days, foreshadowing the Resurrection.  As Ambrose wrote, “He who was believed dead for our faith would rise again after three days from his triumphal passion and appear on His heavenly throne with divine honor” (Exp. Luc. 2.63).  Christ had, at a triumphant 12, has gone up to Jerusalem. There is a passion in his loss.  He is found “seated” among the elders who were honoring Him for His questions.

Christ speaks about “my Father’s House” even as Joseph regards Him in the full sight of the great men of Jerusalem. Mary hears His words, perhaps checking Joseph’s reaction. There is joy in the finding of the Lord, of course, just as parents rejoice in finding a child whom they thought was lost. This is the 5th Joyful Mystery, after all.

But any human heart, even the Immaculate Heart of this Mother, would have twinged a bit with these words.  They had some sense of what must someday befall her Child. This has been Mary’s constant consideration to ponder, since her encounter, here, with Simeon and during their sojourn in Egypt.

Finally, in the Lucan account, Mary pondered it all: “His mother kept all these things in her heart.”

Joyful Sorrow… Sorrowful Joy.

A Prayer of St. Alphonsus:

Oh Blessed Virgin, why art Thou afflicted, seeking Thy lost Son? Is it because Thou dost not know where He is? But dost Thou not know that He is in Thy Heart? Dost Thou not see that He is feeding among the lilies? Thou Thyself hast said it: “My beloved to me and I to Him who feedeth among the lilies.” These, Thy humble, pure, and holy thoughts and affections, are all lilies, that invite the Divine Spouse to dwell with Thee. Ah, Mary, dost Thou sigh after Jesus, Thou who lovest none but Jesus?

Leave sighing to me and so many other sinners who do not love Him, and who have lost Him by offending Him. My most amiable Mother, if through my fault Thy Son hast not yet returned to my soul, wilt Thou obtain for me that I may find Him. I know well that He allows Himself to be found by all who seek Him: “The Lord is good to the soul that seeketh Him.” Make me to seek Him as I ought to seek Him. Thou art the gate through which all find Jesus; through Thee I too hope to find Him.

4th Sorrow – Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary

Posted in Our Solitary Boast, Patristiblogging | Tagged , ,
6 Comments

“How are they down, how have they fallen down Those great strong towers of ice and steel”?

Posted on 11 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There are times when being a priest has its perks.  Today was one of them.  I had an early call from the oldest friend of my life who needed a prayer intention covered.  I was able to say Mass for his intention.

And because today is 11 September, I added the orations “Pro defensione ab hostibus… for defense against enemies“.  I included, as I prayed these orations, enemies within the Church, especially those who are intent on creating in reality a “schism” which was at first born only in their minds.

The Collect:

Hostium nostrorum, quaesumus, Domine, elide superbiam: et eorum contumaciam dexterae tuae virtute prosterne.  Amen.

Shatter to pieces, we beseech Thee O Lord, our enemies’ pride and humble their insolence by the might of Thy hand.

Contumacia, by the way, can mean not only “insolence”, but “rigidity”, a word much in the news right now.   Ironically, there’s none more rigid, in the worst sense, than a committed liberal, or contumacious.

I’ll be adding these orations often for the near future.

Meanwhile, …

… on this day I can’t shake the images of 9-11, the debris scattered field, the burning Pentagon, the collapse of the towers.  I have in mind especially the people who were close up and survived, a good friend in particular, and the many LEOs and FFs and others who went toward the danger, with long term consequences.

And while the context is a little different, the seemingly prophetic words of a poem by Thomas Merton come back to my mind.  I’ve posted them before.  I’m not at all a fan of Merton, especially his later stuff, but his poetry is thoughtful and at times gracious.  US HERE – UK HERE

In the late 1940’s Merton published his complicated poem Figures For An Apocalypse.  One of the sections of the poem is entitled “In the Ruins of New York“.

While the whole section concerns a great downfall, a city and way of life overturned in materialism, there are some striking lines which – when isolated – call to mind the horror of 11 September 2001.

Oh how quiet it is after the black night
When flames out of the clouds burned down your cariated teeth,
And when those lightnings,
Lancing the black boils of Harlem and the Bronx,
Spilled the remaining prisoners,
(The tens and twenties of the living)
Into the trees of Jersey,
To the green farms, to find their liberty.

How are they down, how have they fallen down
Those great strong towers of ice and steel,
And melted by what terror and what miracle?
What fires and lights tore down,
With the white anger of their sudden accusation,
Those towers of silver and of steel?

From Figures For An Apocalypse, VI – In the Ruins of New York (1947) by Thomas Merton

The poem does not line up perfectly with the events of 9/11, but the imagery is, for me at least, evocative.

The whole poem, even just the section of “In the Ruins of New York” is worth your time.  Merton paints the ugly with beautiful images.  Other moments of his poem are now striking. Consider this:

“This was a city
That dressed herself in paper money.
She lived four hundred years
With nickels running in her veins.
She loved the waters of the seven purple seas,
And burned on her own green harbor
Higher and whiter than ever any Tyre.
She was as callous as a taxi;
Her high-heeled eyes were sometimes blue as gin,
And she nailed them, all the days of her life,
Through the hearts of her six million poor.
Now she has died in the terrors of a sudden contemplation
– Drowned in the waters of her own, her poisoned well.”
…
But now the moon is paler than a statue.
She reaches out and hangs her lamp
In the iron trees of this destroyed Hesperides.
And by that light, under the caves that once were banks and theaters,
The hairy ones come out to play….

The hairy ones come out to play…

The hairy ones are romping, in the Church as well.

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

Sts. of the Roman Canon, pray for us.

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us.

Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Posted in Linking Back | Tagged , ,
5 Comments