Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

“The Church of priests is coming to an end.” What’s really going on.

Posted on 10 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At Settimo Cielo long time vaticanista Sandro Magister posted something that should make everyone stop, breathe for a while, and consider options.

Context: In October there will be a meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, during which the Church is supposed to learn about spirituality of trees and insects and the ways of tribes in touch with nature.

The Synod will be a pry bar into the core of priesthood.

The fact that there is a shortage of priests is an excuse to overturn the Church’s understanding of priesthood.

Some are straining against the gate, hammers and prybars in restless hands.

NB: It is important to watch carefully what is going on in the Church in Italy. You find in Italy signals about what is going on behind the scenes in Rome.

Let’s see some of this (my emphases):

In the Amazon Married Deacons Are Already Saying Mass. And the Pope Knows It

For a few days a video has been circulating on the web in which an Italian priest of the highest rank, among those closest to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, says that in the Amazon the celebration of the Mass by married deacons is already a de facto reality, authorized by the local bishops. And Pope Francis, informed of the matter, is alleged to have said:”Go ahead!”

The author of this revelation is not just anybody. He is Giovanni Nicolini, 79, an esteemed priest of the archdiocese of Bologna, which has as its archbishop that Matteo Zuppi whom a few days ago Francis promoted as cardinal.

Fr. Nicolini is currently a national ecclesiastical assistant of the Catholic Associations of Italian Workers, ACLI, and was previously director of Caritas of Bologna, in addition to being a parish priest in the neighborhood next to the prison. A priest of the poor, of the imprisoned, of the immigrants: this is his best-known profile.

But even before this he was a spiritual son of Giuseppe Dossetti (1913-1996), a leading politician in postwar Italy and then, as monk and priest, a protagonist of Vatican Council II along with Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro. [A key player, with Bugnini, in the systematic undermining of the Roman Rite prosecuted in the name of Vatican II.]

In the footsteps of Dossetti, Fr. Nicolini founded in the 1970’s the Family of the Visitation, a community now made up of around thirty monks and nuns and as many married couples, divided between the countryside of Bologna and the archdiocesan missions in Tanzania and Jerusalem.

Moreover, Fr. Nicolini is connected to that influential progressive Catholic think tank known as the “school of Bologna,” which had its founder in the same Dossetti and has in Church historian Alberto Melloni and in Bose monastery founder Enzo Bianchi its current mainstays and gurus, both of them ultra-Bergoglians. [Bose monastery… see below!]

So here is a link to Fr. Nicolini’s shocking video:

> “Sento l’opportunità di ricordare…”[In Italian]

The video is part of a broader “lesson” by Fr. Nicolini, it too recorded, at the summer school of the political-cultural Catholic association La Rosa Bianca, held in Terzolas, Trentino from August 21 to 25.

And the following is an exact transcription of his words concerning the celibacy of the clergy and the “Masses” that already are said to be celebrated by married deacons in the Amazon, with the authorization of the local bishops and the support of Pope Francis.

*

AND THE POPE SAID: “GO AHEAD!”

I feel it is fitting to recall, together with you, that the Church of priests is coming to an end. Is this a prophecy?

[…]

Let’s connect some dots.

Right now there is a systematic effort on the part of the New catholic Red Guards to slander, intimidate and silence anyone who offers an observation or criticism of any kind whatsoever about the radical changes being made even to Catholic teaching during this pontificate. This is going on across various language groups, and representatives from various languages are getting more organized. They are coordinating.

A dot to connect.

Professional self-promoter, bomb-throwing strawman-stuffer Massimo “Beans” Faggioli tweeted”

I owe so much spiritually and intellectually to the Community of Bose https://t.co/jvjbrII3Bc

— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) September 6, 2019

Bose (Bo-zay) is – sort of – like an Italian Taize. There is a breathy piece about it at Commonwelt. HERE The community has roots in a post-Conciliar leveling ecumenism which cherry picks elements of different traditions. I don’t understand their canonical, ecclesiastical status. They are doing their own thing and, a while back, a bishop said, “Okay.” Their site says:

The Monastic Community of Bose was canonically approved by a decree dated 11 July 2000 of the Bishop of Biella, Massimo Giustetti, who also approved its statute and the monastic rule that went with it. The present Ordinary, Bishop Gabriele Mana, confirmed the above status of juridical person and approved modifications to the statute in a decree dated 29 June 2010. The monastic rule was approved by Cardinal Michele Pellegrino of Turin on the occasion of the profession of the first seven brothers, 23 April 1973, and was confirmed by his successor, Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero on 6 August 1978.

It seems to me that this community – a private association of the faithful – is all about a version of Christianity that tends toward a “one world religion” with some Catholic elements that they like. It’s generic, a strain of “mere Christianity” somewhat attached to Catholicism and Catholic roots but less intellectually than, say, the Touchstone folks. It is, perhaps, driven by sentimentalism and a kind of Italian “contempt” for the Church that arises from “familiarity”. It is a kind of Catholic-lite place, with Eastern touches and a little bit of Woodstock and new-agey Findhorn. I’m not sure what Protestants contribute. They have a meaningful bell named after Dietrich Bonhoeffer. “Eucharist” is mentioned on their site, but so sparsely that it seems a purposeful avoidance. I think it might be Mass, but I am not sure. There are Catholic priests there, so I guess there is Mass. Who receives Communion? Everyone? Anyone?

Quite a lot of money circulates around the place it seems. But all the people in the community seem to work for a living or make things which are sold, which is admirable. They are making a go of it by work and some sort of prayer.

I would note that Rome seems to embrace this model, but it crushed the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and those sisters in France who took care of the poor because they were too traditional.

This is something that Beans is really into: “I owe so much spiritually and intellectually to the Community of Bose.”

UPDATE:

And minutes before I posted this, Beans tweeted:

La chiesa dei preti sta finendo https://t.co/ndGHAnzNCU di @YouTube

— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) September 10, 2019

A central motivation of the Protestant Revolt in the 16th century and onward was precisely the destruction of the priesthood.

Posted in Liberals, New catholic Red Guards, Pò sì jiù, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, What are they REALLY saying? | Tagged Bose monastery, Massimo Faggioli
16 Comments

On “Bullshit” and the New ‘c’atholic Red Guards

Posted on 10 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today there is an amusing and insightful piece at First Things about the “Theory of Bullshit”… no, it’s a real thing… proposed in the 80s by the distinguished Princeton professor and philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt.

BTW… I usually write B as in B, S as in S on this blog, but in this case “Bullshit” is a technical term. All words, even the ugly ones, have their apt applications.

I had a thought while reading the front of the article, which briefly expounds on Bullshit. (My emphases and comments)

As Frankfurt himself notes in On Bullshit:

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. . . . In consequence we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, or what function it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory. I propose to begin the development of a theoretical understanding of bullshit, mainly by providing some tentative and exploratory philosophical analysis.

Frankfurt argues that “bullshit is unavoidable when circumstances require”—or invite, or encourage—“someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic.” The bullshitter, in Frankfurt’s theory, “does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”

For Frankfurt, bullshitting is not quite the same as lying. Liars must acknowledge and engage the truth even as they subvert it. By contrast, “[the bullshitter] does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it.” Rather, “he pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of truth than lies are.”

Much like the poison of disinformation. More on that below.

While I was reading the above, I was thinking “This is exactly what guys like Antonio Spadaro, Bobby Mickens, Massimo “Beans” Faggioli, Michael Sean Winters, Austen Iveriegh and others are doing to smear anyone who raises questions or criticisms about what’s going on in this present pontificate. They have, without the least consideration of facts, constructed a narrative, a strawman – that conservative American Catholics are forming some sort of “schismatic” movement in the Church. It’s total Bullshit. But they are committed to it, synchronized (mark my words), and relentless.

That is what I was thinking as I read. Then, the writer went there!

[…]

Note also that a new French text, Comment L’Amérique veut changer de pape (How America Wants to Change the Pope), may offer an especially promising environment for testing Frankfurt’s theory; but currently available only in French, it’s not included here. [This was the book on the papal airplane which Francis called a “bomb” at the time he said he was “honored” to be criticized by Americans.]

We can start with “Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism in the USA: A surprising ecumenism.”[This is the product of the Jesuit, Antonio “2+2=5” Spadaro. He also maintains a site dedicated to homoerotic Italian writer Pier Vittorio Tondelli.] Now a 2017 classic of the genre, it easily meets the Frankfurt standard of speaking “extensively about matters of which [the authors] are to some degree ignorant.” Impressive in its length, turbulent in its imagination (claims of political Manichaeism; a cult of apocalypse, etc.), and generous in use of hyperbole (“ultra-literalism,” “ecumenism of conflict,” “nostalgic dream of a theocratic type state,” etc.), it embodies a peculiar kind of European anxiety about American influence and otherness. In the process, it fails to engage—in fact, seems uninterested in engaging—the real issues and actual terrain in long-term evangelical/Catholic relations.

A similar anxiety spills over into [Bobby Mickens, who lost his job at the ultra-lefty Tablet because he wished Benedict XVI dead, at] La Croix International’s “The rise of ‘devout schismatics’ in the Catholic Church.”

[.]

Get it? He also cites Winters (aka Madame Defarge aka the Wile E. Coyote of the catholic Left – “US bishops should drop everything and focus on preventing schism.”) and his ravings about “schism”, ironic from someone who writes for the Fishwrap.

And check out the relentless tweeting by Beans (if you haven’t been blocked). There are ways around that. He’s obsessed.

Read the whole First Things piece. It really tears the mask off the builders of the strawman.

At this point, I will also redirect you from Bullshit to Disinformation. I wrote about this some years back.

On "Bullshit" and the New 'c'atholic Red Guards There is a book by the highest ranking Soviet block operative ever to defect to the West, the invaluable Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism by Ronald Rychlak and Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa. US HERE – UK – HERE

Gen. Pacepa, who ran intelligence for Romanian despot and Soviet thug Nicolae Ceaucescu, fled to the West when he was asked to start killing people. He is an expert on the Soviet technique of framing, disinformation, creating false narratives and history. The book exposes the Communist background of seemingly-benign organizations and explains the treatment received by Cardinals Stepinak, Mindszenty and Wysznski and, of course, Pius XII. It is riveting and extremely useful in understanding what the deep-state catholic Left and their New catholic Red Guard operatives (like Beans and Bobby and Madame Defarge) are up to.

Hmmm… I just remembered back in 2017 when the fights were beginning over the infamous paragraphs in Amoris laetitia. The Four Cardinals had submitted the Five Ignored Dubia. Remember that there was a meeting in Boston, involving Jesuits such as Spadaro, who flew over from Rome, and invited journalists and key liberal bishops? They were going to coordinate their messaging about Amoris. I wrote about it a couple times, for example HERE.

Bullshit and Disinformation are related, but not the same. Bullshit is more ad hoc, while Disinformation is carefully crafted, disciplined. It seems to me that the bizarre narrative of a possible “schism” in these USA on the part of conservative Catholics is beginning to move from Bullshit to Disinformation. It is as if, in their constant grinding away at the Faith they found a theme that got some traction and have rallied around it to push that truck full of Bullshit up that hill. They are coordinating now, which suggests Disinformation.

It also smacks of the “große Lüge” propaganda technique. Tell a “big lie”, but tell it so often that people start thinking that maybe it’s true after all, otherwise they wouldn’t be repeating it with such conviction.

And, as Pacepa wrote:

Soviet leader and long-time KGB head Yuri Andropov, apparently a real aficionado of dezinformatsiya, put it this way: “[ Dezinformatsiya is] like cocaine. If you sniff once or twice, it may not change your life. If you use it every day though, it will make you an addict— a different man.”

They have sniffed so much Bullshit that they can’t smell anything else.

UPDATE:

Because we need a good eye-roll once in a while!

Today @firstthingsmag has an essay by Francis X. Maier (@fran_x48) that uses potty language to deride a @MassimoFaggioli article that criticized Archbishop Chaput. Yet there’s no mention that Maier is Chaput’s senior adviser and special assistant. An oversight, perhaps? pic.twitter.com/IZKpoVjkTN

— Dawn Eden Goldstein (@DawnofMercy) September 11, 2019

A fourth-grader can see what’s wrong with this. “Oooo… someone near Chaput… wink wink nudge nudge.” Never mind the argument. It’s Chaput, get it? And “potty language”? In that context? Frankfurter’s essay on the philosophy of language? Oh dear! Her delicate ears! But, no, she’s writing for a particular primed-public by now. She has to aim at the right pitch for them to catch the dog whistle. Too bad it has come to this. We wanted better.

Ceterum, Beans’ article deserved derision.

What a brave man Faggioli is, who teaches at a “catholic” school in Chaput’s archdiocese, to post something against Chaput shortly before he is canonically required to submit his resignation.

Brave brave Beans. Bravely bold Faggioli. He’s taking on the big ones!

Posted in Fr. Z KUDOS, Jesuits, Liberals, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Bullshit, Disinformation, Harry G. Frankfurt, The Big Lie
6 Comments

Concerning Mutual Enrichment. Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 9 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I remember, years ago, some folks who were deeply attached to the Traditional Latin Liturgy of the Roman Church almost lynched me when I suggested that there was something that we could learn from the Novus Ordo.

Over the years, I have been proven right, even to the point that Pope Benedict wrote about “mutual enrichment”. I like the image of a “gravitational pull”.

One of the things I proposed “back when” was that the Novus Ordo at the very least reminded us that “there are people out there”, in the body of the church. And that, because the Roman Rite itself excludes the sensory participation in some of the sensory experience of what Father does at the altar (because they can’t see some things and can’t hear some things), that means that those parts which are more accesible through sight and sound have to be exemplary, in such a way that they are edifying.

What I was driving at was what Benedict, years later in Sacramentum caritatis, described as the ars celebrandi of the priest: all that goes into how the priest does anything liturgical, his attitude, voice, gestures, demeanor, etc. These things have a knock-on effect on congregations. They are extremely important.

This is why learning the TLM is of critical importance for young priests: it’ll have a big effect on their use of the Novus Ordo and, therefore, on their congregations.

I saw a post at NLM which touches on this matter of ars celebrandi and the genius of the Roman Rite enshrined in the rubrics.

Rubrics are not arbitrary. They are there for a reason. Sometimes, they maintain a part of an ancient liturgical action which, for the most part, has fallen away. That doesn’t mean that the rubric or what it designates is “superfluous”. I refer everyone to the great book by my friend Fr. Jackson on that point. US HERE UK HERE More the most part, rubrics solved practical problems. Over time the gestures and things used at Mass also become loci theologici, departure points for theological reflection.

Because our forebears truly loved Holy Mass with all their hearts, they polished and perfected, carefully, what we do as if it were the setting of the most beautiful jewel ever found. Then, again in love, they passed it down to us because they loved us.

Rubrics reflect love.

This is one reason why I constantly say: We Are Our Rites! They shape us even as, over centuries, we shape them out of what we believe, whom we believe ourselves and the Church to be, who Christ is, what He did for us and does for us. That’s why the sudden imposition of an artificially crafted rite was so upsetting – and is still upsetting – the Church.

At NLM the piece in question concerned the celebration of Low Mass by a priest who, even for those texts that are required by the rubrics to be stated clara voce, in a clear, raised, audible voice, read everything silently.

There are a few cases, such as a truly private Mass when you might do that. A priest would do that if he was “concelebrating” at his altar near to other priests saying, reading, Mass at their altars: you keep your voice down. But in a parish church or a setting where people are participating, unless the New catholic Red Guards are hunting you, you use all your levels of voices and you follow the rubrics.

It seems to me that there are some ideas about Low Mass that still have to be overcome.

First, Low Mass is NOT the paradigmatic Mass of the Roman Rite, as if it were the default to which we add things to make it more solemn when the occasion arises. No. It’s quite the opposite. Solemn Mass, indeed with the bishop, is the paradigm. But because we can’t have Solemn Mass in a lot of places, due to the lack of priests, we – as a solution to a deficit – pare things off of the rites and simplify so that we can, indeed, have Mass, and have it daily in humble surroundings. The Roman Rite seeks always to make things big. It’s modernism that seeks to make the supernatural into the small and natural, to dumb it down. So, if you have some notion that the Low Mass, with nothing sung and just an altar boy or two, is the norm, think again. You are witnessing what we tolerate, not what we desire, even though it is “the norm” because it is widespread. It’s not the norm!

Next, given the way that Low Mass cuts down the rites in a pragmatic way, all the more reason to obey the lovingly crafted rubrics and pay closer attention to those sensory points of Mass which bring the baptized participants into the sacred action so that they can exercise more readily their mode of the priesthood they receive from Christ the High Priest.

When it is time to speak with a clear voice, follow the rubrics and use a clear voice. It’s important. When it is time to be very quiet, then be quiet.

Say the Black according to what the Red prescribes.

The liturgical desert we experienced, when many were (falsely) convinced that the Traditional Forms were forbidden, is behind us. That wearisome, thirsty time has, I hope, given many of us old warriors, a real sense of renewal and gratitude. And we have, I hope, learned a few things about where we were before the desert, what the desert was like, and where we are now. We have such potential in front of our eyes.

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, "How To..." - Practical Notes, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged Lex Orandi Lex Credendi, Low Mass, rubrics, Say The Black - Do The Red, We Are Our Rites
12 Comments

Our Lady of Sorrows Project: 1st Sorrow – The Prophecy of Simeon

Posted on 9 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Sunday, 15 September is, in the traditional calendar, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (2nd Class). For Holy Mass we will use the 14th Sunday after Pentecost with commemorations of the Feast.

I believe that the Rubricae Generales of the 1962 Missale Romanum (342 & 370-372) allow a diocesan bishop to permit the celebration of the Feast on the Sunday (2nd Class). This mystery is also observed liturgically during the 5th week of Lent in the traditional calendar. And, of course, Good Friday has also called forth devotional practices such as processions with statues of the Mater Dolorosa. How could it not?

In the 12th c. German Benedictines began to develop the devotion of Our Lady in her moments of sorrow. In the 13th c, the Servite Order, founded near Florence, made the sorrows of Mary a central dimension of their devotion. They developed, among other things, a kind of rosary and a Black Scapular dedicated to Our Lady’s sorrows. Over the centuries Mary has been depicted not just as the Mother holding her dead Son, Pietà, but also as having seven swords, one for each moment of sorrow attested in Scripture and tradition, piercing her breast. Alternatively, you see her surrounded with images of those moments.

The Seven Sorrows

The prophecy of Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35)
The flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13-23)
The loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary. (Tradition)
The Crucifixion of Jesus. (Matthew 27:34–50, Mark 15:23–37, Luke 23:33–46, John 19:18–30)
The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Deposition. (John 19:34)
The Burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea. (Matthew 27:57–61, Mark 15:43–47, Luke 23:50–53, John 19:40–42)

Shall we, in the next few days, look as some aspects of the Seven Sorrows? Here are a few ideas to consider. And before any of you enthusiastically write, as inevitably some do, “You forgot… X!” No. I didn’t. I offer here some ideas, not all possible thoughts. Many great writers have contemplated Mary. Each of these mysteries is a bottomless serving of rich fare, like baskets and fish that keep on feeding.

The Prophecy of Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35)

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”

It is usual for Catholics to say an Our Father and seven Hail Marys for each of the Sorrows of Mary. You might do that now.

Context: The Lord comes to the Temple for the 1st time. Ultimately, His Body is the New Temple, to be established in the heavenly Jerusalem. Now He comes to the earthly Temple, already High Priest, already perfect Victim, ready to shed His Precious Blood for the first time for His mission of propitiation and to teach us who we are, to reveal man more fully to himself (GS 22).

Here are Anna, the prophetess, whose Feast was 1 September. Even in our calendar, she is close to the Temple where she, a widow, waited for 80 years for the true Bridegroom. Here is elderly Simeon, probably a priest, whose 8 October feast, with Anna’s, brackets the first of the sorrows of Mary, the presentation of the Christ Child for His Circumcision.

Simeon takes the Child into his arms and raises in that moment a song of joy which we sing every evening at Compline, the Nunc Dimittis. Surely it is a paen of joy, but with a profundity that expresses itself not in enthusiasm, but expresses also the weariness of a labor completed, like that of the satisfaction of a hard day’s, life’s, task. Many composers through the centuries have set the Nunc Dimittis, so important in the Roman Rite, to music. The settings, whether of Josquin des Prez, or Palestrina, or Holst, Rachmaninov, or Dyson, or Pärt, are restrained and introspective, calm as befitting a sense of completion of a life lived in uprightness and in hope.

Here is Palestrina’s version, sung by the Tallis Scholars in St Mary Major in Rome in 1994. I was present at this concert.

Haunting Pärt.

Simeon’s joy is weighted with gravity.

Mary’s pattern, in Scripture, is to be still and take all things in before she ponders and then speaks. As I picture the moment, she watches and listens. She is utterly still, taking it all in. Simeon holds Jesus as he pronounces his Nunc Dimittis. Then he turns to look at her. Still guided by the Holy Spirit, the old priest prophesies – for her benefit – about “the fall and rising of many”, and that Christ is a “sign of contradiction”, literally “spoken against”, and that “a sword” would pierce Mary’s soul so that “thoughts out of many hearts be revealed”.

What mother wouldn’t halt in her tracks at this description of her and her Child’s destiny?

Consider that Mary hears with ears perfectly tuned to what God says to her in Scripture, in the human voice, in the sounds of nature. She knows the Scriptures. She knows of the Suffering Servant. She knows about Eve.

The word for “sword” here in Greek is rhomphaia which can be a large sword but is more accurately a curved blade on a short staff, slung on the back, used in close combat by Thracians.

Ancient reliefs show it to be almost like a Japanese odachi, though the odachi is a bit long. Interestingly, the odachi eventually was not used for battle, but became an exceptional temple offering. In any event, Luke uses the odd rhomphaia rather than machaira, the shorter sword of Luke 22:36, which the Lord at the end of the Last Supper instructs His apostles to obtain, the sword which the Lord said he came to bring (Matthew 10:34), and with which Peter cut the ear of the servant of the High Priest (Matthew 26:52). The machaira is the sharp two-edged sword Paul references when describing the word of God (Heb 4:12).

No, in the Temple Simeon mentions the terrible, large curved slashing, thrusting weapon of a notably savage tribe, the rhomphaia. This is the sword of awesome images in the book of Revelation, the “son of man” “the Alpha and Omega” in ch. 1 from whose mouth came a sharp rhomphaia, at whose feet John fell. This is the rhomphaia of the rider of the pale horse, Death in Rev 6, with power to slay a fourth of all living things. This is the sword of the rider of the white horse, Faithful and True, whose robe was dipped in blood, the Word of God, followed by the hosts of heaven (Rev 19).

To pierce with the rhomphaia, you would need to raise your arms high to thrust downward or, more horribly, keep them low to thrust upward, under the ribs, where the Lord was physically conceived, and into the heart, where He was spiritually conceived.

How terrible will be the sorrows that pierce the “soul”, the “psyche”, the seat of feelings and desires, “the heart” of Mary?

Think rhomphaia.

In obedience to the Law, Mary and Joseph have brought their Child to the Temple. St Jerome, who spent much time in Jerusalem, opines that the Child who opened the closed door of the Virgin, now comes as High Priest to open the closed East Door of the Temple, through which only the High Priest can pass. (Adv. Pelag. 2.4)

Already there is a priestly coming with sacrifice toward the East, and then a return, having fulfilled the sacrifice from the East.

Christ has come to be the New Adam and Mary is the counterpoint to the Old Eve, hence the image of the sword brings to mind also the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise by the angel with the sword at the garden gates. Remember that Eden was a mountain, and mountains are where altars were built, sacrifices took place for the creation of covenants with God. They are now at the Temple in Jerusalem. Is the piercing of Mary’s heart the conclusive sheathing of the sword of Eden?

Cutting to the quick, the Word pierces her. Eden is no longer needed, for greater than Adam and greater than Eve are now here in the fullness of time.

Simeon says that a rhomphaia will pierce Mary’s heart, which surely refers to the Crucifixion. Is it hard to imagine that Mary will begin to prepare for the Passion of her Son from this point in her life onward? She would have known about the preparation of the lambs at the Pasch, their cruciform stretching on crosses for roasting.

The core Apostles, Peter, John and James, needed their Transfiguration moment with Jesus to prepare for His Passion. Is this the moment, the Presentation in the Temple and Simeon’s solemn prophesies, that guides Mary to prepare for the next 33 years for her sharing in the Passion? In her Magnificat, she rightly proclaimed in joy that her Son would scatter the proud and bring down the mighty. In Simeon’s pronouncement, Christ will be the fall and rising of many, but his message is less of joy than one of warning.

Imagine the rush of thoughts and images which flood Mary’s soul as she stands in the Temple, as Simeon concludes. What follows, the first shedding of the Precious Blood.

Piercing. Cutting. Obedience. Self oblation.

Mary’s sorrow is that of a Mother with a bond more intimate than any mother with her child. Mary’s sorrow is at the same time shot through with pure exalting joy because she relies entirely on God and knows that this is it. This is the time and the “hour” is fast approaching. Sorrowful joy. Joyful sorrow.

Mary will now ponder, for ponder Mary does, in an ongoing, inexorable piercing of her heart over the next 33 years of anticipation of the 3 days of magnificent saving horror.

The Collect for the Feast of the Sorrows of Mary
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
O God, in Whose Passion the sword, according to the prophecy of blessed Simeon, pierced through the soul of Mary, the glorious Virgin and Mother, mercifully grant that we, who reverently commemorate her piercing through and her suffering, may, by the interceding glorious merits of all the saints faithfully standing by the Cross, obtain the abundant fruit of Your passion.
Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.
R. Amen

2nd Sorrow – The Flight into Egypt

Posted in Our Solitary Boast | Tagged Our Lady of Sorrows Project, Seven Sorrows of the BVM
6 Comments

ACTION ITEM! 9 Sept is International Buy A Priest A Beer Day! #IBAPABD

Posted on 9 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

NB: Scroll down for the Latin and English texts for the Blessing of Beer.

You don’t want to miss this. It’s too important. And this has been a really tough year for priests, all things considered.

Show a little love. Give a little TLC.

Monday 9 September is

International Buy A Priest A Beer Day!

Beer is so much more than just a great breakfast drink. It’s a sign of cordial support and good cheer.

You will want to obtain and deliver beer to your priests. I share the terrific Norcia Beer with the guys here. (Do visit their site – they need lots of support since the terrible earthquakes in Central Italy.)

Should any of you want to provide the undersigned (aka Father Z) with a beer one time, try this.

Click!

If some of you want to subscribe (to buy me a beer) once a month, you can use the thingy, below. (There are more options than the “BEER!” option.

ACTION ITEM! 9 Sept is International Buy A Priest A Beer Day! #IBAPABD

Card. Ratzinger thinks you should subscribe!

Also, there is a blessing for beer in the old Rituale Romanum which a priest can impart.

When you bring beer to the priest, bring this prayer along and ask him to bless it and all the beer you bought for yourself!

V. Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.
R. Qui fecit caelum et terram.
V. Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.

Oremus.

Benedic +, Domine, creaturam istam cerevisiae, quam ex adipe frumenti producere dignatus es: ut sit remedium salutare humano generi, et praesta per invocationem nominis tui sancti; ut, quicumque ex ea biberint, sanitatem corpus et animae tutelam percipiant. Per Christum Dominum nostrum.

R. Amen.

Or else…

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.

V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

Bless, + O Lord, this creature beer, which thou hast deigned to produce from the fat of grain: that it may be a salutary remedy to the human race, and grant through the invocation of thy holy name; that, whoever shall drink it, may gain health in body and peace in soul. Through Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.

And it is sprinkled with holy water…. carefully.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ACTION ITEM!, Lighter fare, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged beer, International Buy A Priest A Beer Day
7 Comments

Article explains a lot about Bergoglio/Francis, Amazon Synod, connection with Liberation Theology

Posted on 8 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

LifeSite has an important article for understanding more about Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Francis. The article stems from a 47 year old photo which shows a group who attended a conference in 1972, including Bergoglio, Liberation Theologian and now-laicized Leonardo Boff and a founder of an Argentinian branch of Liberation Theology, “Theology of the People”, and huge influence on Bergoglio, Juan Carlos Scannone, SJ. It seems that Francis recently sent the photo to Boff, who posted it on Twitter.

CORREÇÃO: Estou errando demais. Bergoglio é o 4. a partir da direita e eu o 2. a partir da esquerda. Desculpem, os anos pesam demais.

— Leonardo Boff (@LeonardoBoff) August 5, 2019

The article drills into Boff’s view of Francis, and what Boff thought and thinks Francis is going to do to the Church. LifeSite cites and links various interviews Boff has given over the years.

It is clear that Boff was behind some of Laudato si and that Francis is in touch with him.

Boff is, in effect, the “theologian of reference” for the upcoming Amazon Synod just as Walter Kasper was the theologian of reference for the debacle twins, the rigged two-part Family Synod.

An excerpt.

[…]

This closeness to Pope Francis could also be seen in Boff’s own interview with the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger [sic] in December of 2016. “He [Pope Francis] has sought a reconciliation with the most important representatives of the Liberation Theology: with Gustavo Gutierrez, Jon Sobrino, and likewise with me,” Boff then said.

But he also reveals that he cautioned Pope Francis as to whether he is prudent to seek such a reconciliation while Pope Benedict is still alive. “I have said to him with respect to Pope Benedict – that is to say, Joseph Ratzinger – ‘But that other is still alive, after all!’ He [Pope Francis] did not accept this. ‘No,’ he said, ‘Il Papa sono io’ – ‘The pope, that is me!’ We were welcomed to come. That is where you see his courage and his decisiveness.”

Being asked in 2016 as to what he expects Pope Francis to do, Boff answers: “Perhaps a diaconate for women, after all. Or the possibility that married priests may be again engaged in pastoral care. That is an explicit request from the Brazilian bishops to the pope, especially from his friend, the retired Brazilian Curial Cardinal Claudio Hummes. I have heard that the pope wants to meet this request – for now and for a certain experimental period in Brazil.”

Boff, who in 1992 left the priesthood and then entered the married state, says in public that he still says Mass. “I personally do not need such a decision [of admitting married priests]. It would not change anything for myself because I still do what I have always done: I baptize, I give Christian burials, and if I happen to come into a parish without a priest, then I also celebrate Mass together with the people.”

When in the mid-1980s, Rome silenced Boff, he turned his energies into the field of ecotheology, laying the foundation for his ideas that then were later included by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato si’. Boff said in an interview in 2016: “The imposition of “silentium obsequiosum” in 1985 by the Vatican forbade me from speaking and writing. That is when I began to study ecology, Earth science, and their relation to human activity. This coincided with an invitation to participate in a small, international group convened by Mikhail Gorbachev and Steven Rockefeller to explore universal values and principles essential for saving Earth from the multiple threats she faces.”

[…]

This upcoming Synod is going to be a real goat rodeo.

Read the article from top to bottom. It explains a lot. HERE

I suggest Tracey Rowland’s terrific book Catholic Theology. US HERE – UK HERE This book is a status quaestionis work, explaining the state of theology is being taught, the different strains and schools, where they came from, who their exponents are. It is supremely helpful. In her section on Liberation Theology, she dedicates a portion to Bergoglio.

Rowland explains (emphases and comment mine):

Situating Pope Francis

While much has been written about Pope Francis’s agenda for his pontificate and his personal history as a Jesuit Provincial and Archbishop, little has been written on his attitudes to the practice of theology as an intellectual discipline. This is because with Francis the accent is on social problems, not ideas, praxis rather than theoria. As he said to a Jesuit student who explained that he was studying Fundamental Theology: ‘I can’t imagine anything more boring.’ When a person says that he ‘can’t imagine anything more boring than Fundamental Theology’, it is not likely that his publications will be full of treasure to be mined for a book on how to do theology.

In an article published in The Atlantic, Ross Douthat observed:

Francis is clearly a less systematic thinker than either of his predecessors, and especially than the academically-minded Benedict. Whereas the previous pope defended popular piety against liberal critiques, Francis embodies a certain style of populist Catholicism – one that’s suspicious of overly academic faith in any form. He seems to have an affinity for the kind of Catholic culture in which mass attendance might be spotty but the local saint’s processions are packed – a style of faith that’s fervent and supernaturalist but not particularly doctrinal. He also remains a Jesuit-formed leader, and Jesuits have traditionally combined missionary zeal with a certain conscious flexibility about doctrinal details that might impede their proselytizing work.

Nonetheless, it has been suggested by several academics and papal commentators that if Pope Francis has sympathy for any particular approach to Catholic theology, it is that of ‘People’s Theology’. One of the most extensive articles on this subject is Juan Carlos Scannone’s ‘El papa Francisco y la teologia del pueblo’ published in the journal Razón y Fe. In this paper Scannone claims that not only is Pope Francis a practitioner of ‘People’s Theology’ but also that Francis extracted his favourite four principles – time is greater than space, unity prevails over conflict, reality is more important than ideas, and the whole is greater than the parts – from a letter of the nineteenth-century Argentinian dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793– 1877) sent to another Argentinian caudillo, Facundo Quiroga (1788– 1835), in 1834. These four principles, which are said to govern the decision-making processes of Pope Francis, have their own section in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium and references to one or other of them can be found scattered throughout his other papal documents. Pope Francis calls them principles for ‘building a people’.

A common thread running through each of these principles is the tendency to give priority to praxis over theory. [NOTA BENE…] There is also a sense that conflict in itself is not a bad thing, that ‘unity will prevail’ somehow and that time will remove at least some of the protagonists in any conflict. The underlying metaphysics is quite strongly Hegelian, and the approach to praxis itself resembles what Lamb classified as ‘cultural-historical’ activity and is associated primarily with Luther and Kant rather than Marx. (Kindle Locations 4226-4252)

There is quite a bit more, but this might provide a clue as to why His Holiness allow the chaos to grow.

And chaos there surely is and will be, in spades, in the foreseeable future.

Posted in Francis, Jesuits, Liberals, Our Catholic Identity, Pò sì jiù, Synod, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Francis, Leonardo Boff, Liberation theology, Synod of Bishops, Synod on Amazon, Theology of the People
9 Comments

8 Sept – Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Posted on 8 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Stop for a moment. Consider what our eternal prospects were before the birth not only of Our Lord, but also before the birth of His Mother, from whom He took our human nature, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ponder the state of slavery to sin in which we were bound and, after death, the strong possibility of everlasting separation from God.

Given what our prospects were, celebrating the birth of our fallen humanity’s solitary boast is a really good idea.

Today’s feast is older than the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which was precisely nine months ago.

Holy Church, in celebrating liturgically her holy birth for a long time, ultimately reasoned back to Mary’s holy conception. As St. Thomas Aquinas argued,

“The Church celebrates the feast of our Lady’s Nativity. Now the Church does not celebrate feasts except of those who are holy. Therefore, even in her birth the Blessed Virgin was holy. Therefore, she was sanctified in the womb.” (STh III, q. 27, a. 1)

As we worship, so do we believe.

As we believe, so do we worship.

Change our worship you change belief, and vice versa.

We are our rites.

Here is the entry in the Roman Martyrology for today’s feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Festum Nativitatis beatae Mariae Virginis, ex semine Abrahae, de tribu Iuda ortae, ex progenie regis David, e qua Filius Dei natus est, factus homo de Spiritu Sancto, ut homines vetusta servitute peccati liberaret.

The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sprung from the seed of Abraham [and] from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David the king, from which was born the Son of God, made man of the Holy Ghost, that he might free men from the ancient slavery to sin.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Solitary Boast | Tagged Nativity of Mary
2 Comments

TLM training available for priests

Posted on 8 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Vetus Ordo, the Usus Antiquior, the Extraordinary Form, the Pian Rite, the Tridentine Mass, the Traditional Latin Mass… call it what you want, there are priests out there who want to learn how to celebrate it.

There are so many good reasons to learn to celebrate it, among which:

It teaches you who you are as a priest in a way that the Novus Ordo cannot.
It will have a marked effect on your ars celebrandi.
It connects us across borders and centuries.
It will have a huge knock-on effect on your congregation.
If you don’t know it, you don’t know the Roman Rite for which you were ordained.
It will have an increasingly important role as demographic shift in the Church.
It’s beautiful.

Alas, priests can be busy. Not all priests know someone in their diocese or order, nearby, who can teach them. Priests can be tied down in a parish and unable to go to one of those places where workshops are offered, such as in Chicago at St. John Cantius.

A reader sent a link to a group who say that they will come to you.

HERE

It could be that a priest or two, or three, or four, could benefit from this.

Just do it.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Priests and Priesthood, Seminarians and Seminaries | Tagged TLM, training
1 Comment

A priest’s prayers before and after making his own confession

Posted on 7 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From an old prayerbook for priests which I’ve had since before my ordination. They are dense with old wisdom.

Here are two prayers, in Latin and English, for priests, for before and after they make confession their own confession.

I’ve added accent marks. In the translations I used an archaic style. The content might seem a little flowery in our age of tweets and dumbed-down prose, but… there’s nothing wrong with that! There are a couple tricky bits in the Latin, but I believe I’ve found the right solutions.

In this these troubling times, I suspect many priests, discerning the particular need and/or in good discipline, will seek to make their own confessions soon. I hope these prayers could be of use.

ORATIO ANTE CONFESSIONEM SACRAMENTALEM

Súscipe Confessiónem meam, piísime ac clementíssime Dómine Iesu Christe, única spes salútis ánimae méae, et da mihi, óbsecro, contritiónem cordis, et lácrimas óculis meis, ut dé?eam diébus ac nóctibus omnes neglegéntias meas cum humilitáte et puritáte cordis. Dómine, Deus meus, súscipe preces meas. Salvátor mundi, Iesu bone, qui te crucis morti dedísti, ut peccatóres salvos fáceres, réspice me míserum peccatórem invocántem nomen tuum, et noli sic atténdere malum meum, ut obliviscáris bonum tuum; et si commísi unde me damnáre potes, tu non amisísti, unde salváre soles. Parce ergo mihi, qui es Salvátor meus, et miserére peccatríci ánimae meae. Solve víncula eius, sana vúlnera. Emítte ígitur, piíssime Dómine, méritis puríssimae et immaculátae semper Víriginis Genitrícis tuae Maríae, et Sánctorum tuórum, lucem tuam, veritátem tuam in ánimam meam, quae omnes deféctus meos in veritáte mihi osténdat, quos confitéri me opórtet, atque iuvet et dóceat ipsos plene et contríto corde explicáre. Qui vivis et regnas Deus per ómnia saécula saeculórum. Amen.

Accept my confession, O most merciful and most gentle Lord Jesus Christ, sole hope of the salvation of my soul, and grant to me, Thy priest, I beg, contrition of heart and tears for my eyes, that day and night I might beweep all my failures with humility and purity of heart. O Lord, my God, accept my prayers. Savior of the world, good Jesus, who gave Thyself to the death of the Cross so that Thou mightst make sinners to be saved, look upon me, a miserable sinner invoking Thy Name, and heed not my evil in such a way that Thou shouldst forget Thy goodness. And if I have committed that by which Thou canst condemn me, Thou hast not lost that by which Thou art accustomed to save me. Spare me, therefore, Thou who art my Savior, and be merciful to my sinful soul. Free its bonds, heal its wounds. Hence, most merciful Lord, by the merits of Thy Mother, the most pure and immaculate ever-Virgin Mary, whom Thou didst entrust as a Mother especially to priests, and by the merits of Thy Saints, into my soul send forth Thy light, Thy truth which all my defects require, and assist and teach me to unfold them fully and with a contrite heart. Who livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.

ORATIO POST CONFESSIONEM

Sit tibi, Dómine, óbsecro, méritis beatae semper Vírginis Genetrícis tuae Maríae et ómnium Sanctórum, grata et accépta ista conféssio mea, et quidquid mihi défuit nunc, et de suf?ciéntia contritiónis, de puritáte et integritáte confessiónis, súppleat píetas et misericórdia tua et secúndum illam dignéris me habére plénius et perféctius absolútum in caelo. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia saécula saeculórum. Amen.

O Lord, I beseech Thee, by the merits of Thy Mother, the ever-Virgin Mary, and of all the saints, let this my confession to have been pleasing and acceptable to Thee, and whatsoever was now lacking in me and in the sufficiency of my contrition, and in the purity and completeness of my confession, may Thy mercy and compassion make whole and, thereafter, deign to hold me fully and perfectly absolved in Heaven. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

This post is intended for bishops and priests and perhaps seminarians, for now to ponder.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, GO TO CONFESSION, Priests and Priesthood, Seminarians and Seminaries, Semper Paratus, The Coming Storm | Tagged confession, sacrament of penance
2 Comments

Francis wears leopard skin at Mass. Apologies from libs to Card. Burke to follow.

Posted on 7 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 15 Sept:

Fr. Hunwicke has added tuppence.

Pope Pardoctonus the First

In Mozambique Francis said Mass wearing a chasuble with leopard skin gallons.

A close look at large photos suggests that it is the real thing: the fur of a dead leopard worn during a public liturgical rite.

Hence, the signer of Laudato sì wore the skin of an endangered species in public, in a clear approbation of the killing and skining of leopards.

Of course if it’s fake leopard skin… that’s almost worse, for obvious reasons.

At least it wasn’t a wolf skin.

Will we now see the Fishwrap types praise Card. Burke when he submits to wearing ermine (i.e., fur of an animal)?

You can hear the libs minds grinding.

“But… but… but…”, sputter the libs, “It’s not Francis’ fault! No, wait. There’s nothing wrong with it because it’s, you know, cultural. Endangered is such a slippery term. Maybe leopards are a nuisance there! Maybe.. no… wait, I don’t mean that these beautiful creatures who have more right to live in Africa than people do are… no, ummm… I don’t want you to think I’m speciesist or racist! Only conservatives are racists! No, the leopard thing… ha ha!… well… you know, they in their un-racist simplicity put it out there for him to wear and so he wore it. If Africans shouldn’t tell Synod Fathers what to say, then we shouldn’t tell them what to wear! Right? After all… Vatican II! So, he is just… you know… so humble he just put it on. Card. Burke, however, when he puts on things people put out for him to wear is being arrogant and oppressive. He hates animals and … HE HATES VATICAN II!”

In any event, it is good to know that the use of the fur of animals is in vogue again.