Fr. Z's Blog

As baptized Catholics we have a role and work to do in the world, each according to our vocations.  We must affect change… as Catholics. How can we imagine that we can do that if we don’t have a clear idea of who we are?  If our Catholic identity is shaky, foggy, vague, superficial, nebulous, ill-defined, why should anyone listen to us?  If we are hesitant, equivocal or hazy in what we know and believe about our Catholic Faith, can we bring about change within the Church and in the public square? Ad intra and ad extra?

Our identity depends in a fundamental way on our sacred liturgical worship of God.  The first thing we owe to God by the virtue of Religion is worship. God must be at the summit of the hierarchy of our relationships. If as individuals and as small groups like parishes, or larger groups like dioceses, and as the greater Church, we have amorphous, lax, ambiguous, muddy, and even puzzling liturgical worship, we will be amorphous, lax, ambiguous, muddy, and even puzzling.  When we speak – or rather squeak like tremulous little gerbils – we will be discounted in the public square, held in contempt and walked on.

We must get back to basics.

• Get out those Catechisms.
• Get that sacred worship in order.

I think that two things in our worship will make a huge difference to our Catholic identity.

First, let’s get our altars turned back toward the Lord again.   We need ad orientem worship.  This will require lots of catechesis and guts.

Next, we need more and more priests of the Latin Church to put aside their fear of making mistakes or being criticized, to put aside their nervousness about Latin, put on their big boy pants and learn the Extraordinary Form.

Remember, Fathers, our Latin Rite has two forms.  If you don’t know the Extraordinary Form yet… you don’t know your Rite yet.

We need you now.

Fathers… Bishops… we need you now.

Via LifeSite:

Priest: ‘You might not have a church to go to if you don’t vote the right way in November’

NAPLES, Florida, September 23, 2016 (LifeSiteNews)—We are at a “precarious moment in our history” when churches must speak truth to power or risk the loss of a lot more than their tax statuses, former Ave Maria Law School chaplain Father Michael Orsi said in a blistering speech at a National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children event on September 10.

Orsi, now on the pastoral team of St. Agnes Church in Naples, Fl said, “For too long, pastors and churches have been bullied into believing that they can say nothing political from the pulpit,” said Orsi. The regulation that is used to silence them “was a piece of spite work” against non-profits that had opposed President Lyndon Johnson, he said.

“Let me remind you: the Bible is a political document,” the priest said. “The prophets, including John the Baptist, and Jesus, lost their lives because they spoke the truth to power.”  [I recently wrote THIS.]

“The Constitution is quickly being destroyed,” warned Orsi, and “unless the right choice is made in November, we may not have a court that is fair and balanced in its interpretation of the Constitution.”  [There is it, friends.  SCOTUS.  This is a huge dimension of the election.  Also, I noticed today that the GOP candidate added a few names to the list of potential nominees to the SCOTUS.  He has said that his picks will come from this list.  HERE]

“Too many of the pastors—too many, practically all—in Germany refused to speak against national socialism,” continued Orsi. “And look [at] the result: millions of Jews, pastors, priests, homosexuals, gypsies all lost their lives because everyone was afraid. What are you afraid of, a couple of bucks? Your tax-exempt status? What’s that going to do to you? [NB]Your churches may be closed anyway, because if a certain party gets elected, this certain party said, if the churches do not agree with our interpretation of women’s reproductive rights, they’ll just have to change their doctrine.” [Hillary Clinton said last April that Christians must be forced to change their religious views to accommodate abortions.  HERE]

“If a certain party gets elected, I can assure you what kind of judges are going to be on those appeals courts,” he said. And those judges will be charged with deciding whether the government may force churches and religious institutions to pay for abortion, contraception, and abortifacient drugs, he noted.

Furthermore, “I’m not going to vote for a candidate who decides that we can redefine the meaning of marriage,” proclaimed Orsi. “Our opponents believe once they destroy the family, once they destroy the churches, they can re-create society in their own image and their own likeness. That, my friends, is not just political. That is diabolical. Get it straight, for crying out loud! The devil is in this!”

“We are in a battle for the soul of America,” he said.

“Somehow, [Christians] have come to buy the story that you cannot be political in church,” said Orsi. “Let me tell you right now, oh yes, you can, and oh, yes, you better be. Because you might not have a church to go to if you don’t vote the right way in November.”

¡Hagan lío!

You might read THIS.