Church security and ‘active shooters’

Posted on 22 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In light of current events and probable future threats, I put a few reading items on my wishlist relating to security for churches.  Most of it seems to be oriented to and written by evangelicals.  However, some of these people have a lot of experience.

In one work I found this sobering passage.  It relates specifically to threats against the pastor or community’s leader, but, more importantly, I think it applies also to the safety of the entire congregation:

A threat to your man and women of God can come in many forms. It can be either a nuisance attack meant to embarrass the pastor or it can be a full-blown attack that is meant to murder, maim or otherwise harm the pastor. Either attack can be devastating not only to your pastor but to the congregation as well. The best way to counter an attack against your man or woman of God and your ministry is to thwart it before it can manifest itself. Your security survey is the best place to stop it. It is here that the operatives will have the opportunity to review the sanctuary and the blueprint of the building. It is also here that you will be able to assess threat levels and take appropriate action to prevent an attack from being successful.

Threat Assessment

In order to determine a proper level of threat it is necessary to not only review the actual area that your man or woman of God will be speaking, but to read local newspapers and consult people within the law enforcement community for additional information. With a clear understanding of your current events you will be able to determine the current mood of the public and narrow down the area of potential attackers. To develop the assessment you must ask yourself several questions. They are:

1. Are the subjects that your pastor speaks on controversial (i.e. gays in the church, abortion, etc.)? [It’s not just a ‘pastor’ who preaches on hot issues, the Catholic Church does.]
2. Is your pastor active in politics?
3. Does your pastor have an active broadcast ministry? [hmmm]
4. Is your pastor well known and active in the community? [hmmm again]
5. Is your church growing in size and influence?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you have a legitimate reason to be concerned for the safety of your pastor [nay, rather, congregation!]. It also gives you an idea of your potential attackers. It is this knowledge that you will use when you approach the threat assessment.

From Birriel, Pablo. Ministry Of Defense: Executive Protection For The Ministry (Kindle Locations 19-30). Kingdom Rule. Kindle Edition.

Someone sent me a link to a piece from Right Side News:

Guns In Church? Security Is Heightened As FEMA Helps Churches Prepare For ‘Active Shooter Incidents’

Do you ever wonder if someone might come marching into your church one Sunday morning and start shooting? When I was growing up, I never even imagined that some mentally-imbalanced individual or a group of Islamic terrorists would ever attempt to attack a church service that I was attending, but times have changed. There have been more mass shootings in America during the presidency of Barack Obama than under the previous four presidents combined, and the primary target of the Islamic terrorists in San Bernardino was a Messianic Christian. The shooters in San Bernardino could have very easily decided to hunt him down at his place of worship instead of at a workplace Christmas party if they had wanted to. And we all remember the horrific mass shooting that took place at a church in South Carolina earlier this year. Our churches are very vulnerable “soft targets”, and Christians all over America are starting to realize that security needs to become a higher priority.

Just like schools, malls, movie theaters, concert halls and sporting events, churches are places where large numbers of people gather and where security is typically minimal. As Christmas approaches, [NB]FEMA is holding “specialized training” for churches that includes training for “active shooter incidents”… [FEMA?… good idea?  Yes? No?]

[…]

If Islamic terrorists were to even just hit one or two of our churches, attendance all across America would immediately plummet. Nobody wants to feel like they are taking their family to a place of danger, and so that is the power of random attacks like the ones that we recently witnessed in Paris. If terrorists can make us feel that they could strike anywhere and at any time, the panic and fear that will create will fundamentally change the way that we go about doing things.

Just look at what is already happening. Church greeters are already being trained to “feel for weapons” as they are hugging people coming in the front door… [Really?]

Christian churches have been refining their security plans ahead of receiving some of their largest crowds of the year for Christmas. On a FEMA webinar last Wednesday on protecting houses of worship, the chief security executive at The Potter’s House, the Rev. TD Jakes’ megachurch in Dallas, gave tips about behavior that should raise concern, such as a congregant arriving in a long coat in hot weather. If needed, church greeters could give a hug and feel for weapons, said the executive, Sean Smith. [?]

And at one Catholic congregation in North Carolina, backpacks, baby strollers and diaper bags have been banned from worship areas…

In Charlotte, North Carolina, St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church, which draws about 30,000 worshippers to its weekend Masses, [Whew!] this month alerted parishioners to beefed-up security, such as uniformed and plain-clothes police officers at services, and a ban on backpacks, baby strollers and diaper bags in worship areas.

So what is next?

Will we soon have the TSA groping us when we arrive for Sunday school?

Personally, I believe that we are going to see some things that were once unthinkable in the years ahead. For decades, we have all been able to go to worship services without even thinking twice about our safety. But now we live in a very different world.

At one time, it was actually quite common for people to bring guns to church. In fact, a 1631 Virginia law actually required men to “bring their pieces to church”…

[…]

This goes on to raise questions about armed congregations.

There is no question that terrorists tend to attack in places where they know people will not be armed.  That includes churches.  Churches are a soft target.  Especially squishy are churches with “no guns” signs posted.

We’ve had this topic before on the blog, but before the Paris and San Bernardino events.

It bears additional level-headed discussion.

Sunday morning, June 26, 1980, America changed forever when a lone gunman invaded the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Daingerfield, Texas killing five and wounding ten. He was armed with two military style long guns and two handguns. He wore bullet proof body armor. No one else in the sanctuary was armed. Three men of the church charged the shooter. Two were killed as they forced the shooter out of the sanctuary with their bodies. The shooter was angry that members of the church would not serve as character witnesses during his pending incest/ child molestation trial. 27 years later, in an eerily similar attack, a similarly armed gunman entered The New Life Church in Colorado Springs killing two and wounding three before he was shot by an armed security guard. He carried a military style carbine with multiple magazines, two high capacity handguns and smoke grenades. He also wore body armor. In this case, the shooter was angry because he had been dismissed from a missionary training program.

According to Carl Chinn of Church Security Concepts there have been 792 deadly force incidents of one type or another in faith based organizations since January 1, 1999.

[…]

According to Police Magazine, the average duration of an active shooter incident is 12.5 minutes while the average police response time to an active shooter incident is 18 minutes. That pretty well tells the tale. Police response is measured in minutes. The armed response necessary to save lives is measured in seconds.

Kumpe, Bill. Concealed Carry In The Congregation: A Primer On Concealed Carry For Churches (Kindle Locations 75-76). Bill Kumpe dba Genuine Okie Publishers. Kindle Edition.

It is an unsettling topic.

Each church situation is unique, depending on size, the nature of the city or town, layout of the plant, tendency of the priests in their teaching and preaching, parish activities, etc.

Hire security?  Frisk people?  Ban bags?  Encourage concealed carry?  Change nothing?

Discuss… rationally.

Comment moderation is ON.

Posted in Going Ballistic, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , , ,
49 Comments

Of the deaths of stars and souls

Posted on 21 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is just too cool not to share.  From APOD:

My emphases and comments:

Explanation: It’s back. Never before has an observed supernova been predicted. The unique astronomical event occurred in the field of galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223. Most bright spots in the featured image are galaxies in this cluster. [Cluster of galaxies… and yet the least of angels could manipulate it all, and a single soul – your soul – is more precious!] The actual supernova, dubbed Supernova Refsdal, occurred just once far across the universe and well behind this massive galaxy cluster. Gravity caused the cluster to act as a massive gravitational lens, splitting the image of Supernova Refsdal into multiple bright images. [How many of you knew that gravity bends light. Cool, no?] One of these images arrived at Earth about ten years ago, likely in the upper red circle, and was missed. Four more bright images peaked in April in the lowest red circle, spread around a massive galaxy in the cluster as the first Einstein Cross supernova. But there was more. Analyses revealed that a sixth bright supernova image was likely still on its way to Earth and likely to arrive within the next year. Earlier this month — right on schedule — this sixth bright image was recovered, in the middle red circle, as predicted. Studying image sequences like this help humanity to understand how matter is distributed in galaxies and clusters, how fast the universe expands, and how massive stars explode.

Go there for lots of fascinating links and a really big version of the image.

One day your Earth’s yellow sun will die.

Your soul, however, will never die, no matter where you are, heaven or the other place.

GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted in Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged
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SUPER COOL: Baseball player who was a spy in WWII

Posted on 21 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have a friend or loved one who is a baseball fan?  A student of WWII?

This book would make a great gift.

A reader alerted me to this via email… one of the coolest things I have seen for a long time.

From goodreads:

Click to buy!

The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg [A book!]

The only Major League ballplayer whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA, Moe Berg has the singular distinction of having both a 15-year career as a catcher for such teams as the New York Robins and the Chicago White Sox and that of a spy for the OSS during World War II. Here, Dawidoff provides “a careful and sympathetic biography”

When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included. Although he played with five major-league teams from 1923 to 1939, he was a very mediocre ball player.

But Moe was regarded as the brainiest ballplayer of all time. In fact Casey Stengel once said: “That is the strangest man ever to play baseball. When all the baseball stars went to Japan, Moe Berg went with them and many people wondered why he went with “the team” . . .

The answer was simple: Moe Berg was a United States spy, working undercover with the CIA.

Moe spoke 15 languages – including Japanese. And he had two loves: baseball and spying.

In Tokyo, garbed in a kimono, Berg took flowers to the daughter of an American diplomat being treated in St. Luke’s Hospital – the tallest building in the Japanese capital.

He never delivered the flowers. The ball-player ascended to the hospital roof and filmed key features: the harbor, military installations, railway yards, etc.

Eight years later, General Jimmy Doolittle studied Berg’s films in planning his spectacular raid on Tokyo..

His father disapproved and never once watched his son play. In Barringer High School, Moe learned Latin, Greek and French. Moe read at least 10 newspapers everyday.

He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton – having added Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit to his linguistic quiver. During further studies at the Sorbonne, in Paris , and Columbia Law School, he picked up Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Arabic,Portuguese and Hungarian – 15 languages in all, plus some regional dialects.

While playing baseball for Princeton University, Moe Berg would describe plays in Latin or Sanskrit.

During World War II, Moe was parachuted into Yugoslavia to assess the value to the war effort of the two groups of partisans there. He reported back that Marshall Tito’s forces were widely supported by the people and Winston Churchill ordered all-out support for the Yugoslav underground fighter, rather than Mihajlovic’s Serbians.

The parachute jump at age 41 undoubtedly was a challenge. But there was more to come in that same year.

Berg penetrated German-held Norway , met with members of the underground and located a secret
heavy-water plant – part of the Nazis’ effort to build anatomic bomb.

His information guided the Royal Air Force in a bombing raid to destroy that plant.

The R.A.F. destroys the Norwegian heavy water plant targeted by Moe Berg.

There still remained the question of how far had the Nazis progressed in the race to build the first Atomic bomb.
If the Nazis were successful, they would win the war. Berg (under the code name “Remus”) was sent to Switzerland
to hear leading German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a Nobel Laureate, lecture and determine if the Nazis were close
to building an A-bomb. Moe managed to slip past the SS guards at the auditorium, posing as a Swiss graduate student. The spy carried in his pocket a pistol and a cyanide pill.

If the German indicated the Nazis were close to building a weapon, Berg was to shoot him – and then swallow the cyanide pill. Moe, sitting in the front row, determined that the Germans were nowhere near their goal, so he complimented Heisenberg on his speech and walked him back to his hotel.

Werner Heisenberg – he blocked the Nazis from acquiring an atomic bomb.

Moe Berg’s report was distributed to Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and key figures in the team developing the Atomic Bomb. Roosevelt responded: “Give my regards to the catcher.

Most of Germany’s leading physicists had been Jewish and had fled the Nazis mainly to Britain and the United States. After the war, Moe Berg was awarded the Medal of Freedom – America ‘s highest honor for a civilian in wartime. But Berg refused to accept it because he couldn’t tell people about his exploits.

After his death, his sister accepted the Medal. It now hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown.

Presidential Medal of Freedom: the highest award given to civilians during wartime.

Moe Berg’s baseball card is the only card on display at the CIA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged , ,
11 Comments

A liturgical low point

Posted on 21 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Some Lutherans in Germany did this to get people into Church. HERE

What pops into my mind is… “but for Wales?”

15_12_21_starwars_Lutherans_02

Yes, friends. In the Illustrated Dictionary of Stupid, these photos will be by the entry for “crass”.

 

People dressed as characters from the movie Star Wars attend a service at the church Zionskirche in Berlin, Germany, December 20, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

People dressed as characters from the movie Star Wars attend a service at the church Zionskirche in Berlin, Germany, December 20, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

 

Don’t get me wrong. When I named Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, my entrance into the Cathedral will be in a black cope to the strains of the Imperial March.

But… this?

Posted in Liberals, You must be joking! |
15 Comments

Altar girls and liturgy dominated by women: bad ideas

Posted on 21 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’m Fr. Z.. and I endorse this essay by Rachel Lu at Crisis!

My emphases and comments:

Altar_Boys

In 1994, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued a letter officially specifying that it is licit for females to serve the altar in the role that has traditionally been known as “altar boy.” [More precisely, this is based on the horrid interpretation of canon 230 §2 saying that it is permitted that females can substitute for duly installed acolytes.] Bishops were not bound to permit the practice, and a 2001 follow-up specified that pastors may also choose to reserve altar service to males within their own parishes. Nevertheless, the Church has specified that altar girls can exist within the Church. [Bottom line… they are not obligatory.  Furthermore, no layperson has the right to serve.]

The practice is permitted. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

I’m not intimidated by empowered women. [Hurray!] …

[…]

It seems to me, though, that an empowered person should be content to leave certain tasks to others. Women can be respected and valued without claiming every important job or honor. In my view, it’s better for everyone when liturgy is left in the hands of men. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

When female friends seem unsure about this, I advise them to let go of the idea that full inclusion in the Church requires us to “participate” in sacred liturgy some externally visible way. [She gets it.] I think it’s perfectly appropriate for women to be involved in parish music (though I always prefer that the music be offered from the back, [YES!] because Holy Mass should not be confused with a concert). Otherwise, though, we can contribute from the pews, by uniting our prayers with the celebrant’s, and the congregation’s. If we are ever inclined to feel deprived by this role, we should remember that we are unspeakably honored by the opportunity to stand in Christ’s presence, and in the presence of all the saints, and even to receive the Bread of Angels into our bodies. If that counts as a degradation, most of our other weekly activities must be nothing short of shameful.

I know the usual response. You can claim that assisting at Mass is an honor, but men still get to do more. Why should they get to do more?

This of course is only referring to a minority of the men. At most Masses there are plenty of men in the pews, singing the hymns and uniting their prayers with the celebrant’s, just as women do. It’s not as though women have been specially segregated into an inferior caste. I can appreciate how some women find it hurtful to be prima facie excluded, regardless of their wishes or intentions. (For instance, some girls see their brothers being trained to serve the altar and feel excluded.) When it comes to worship, though, we should be assiduous about discerning what we’ve been called to do, rather than seizing on the role that we most want. And there are reasons for leaving liturgy to the men.

First of all, altar-boy service is one of the best recruiting grounds for the priesthood. However upsetting some may find it, women are not eligible for this particular role. The Church is desperately in need of more vocations, which in itself seems a good reason for encouraging boys specifically to take up altar service. Realistically, that effort will be most successful when we limit the role to boys. Time and again, we see that the introduction of altar girls leads to a decline in the boys’ willingness to serve. This shouldn’t offend us. It’s developmentally normal for children (adults too, for that matter) to crave opportunities for same-sex companionship and service. Girls should get those opportunities too, but other roles and activities can be found for them.

Beyond the vocations issue, we come to a more thorny problem. When men are in charge of liturgy, they generally favor austerity, solemnity and reverence. They are far more likely to have “high” liturgical sensibilities. When women claim a more central role, we frequently see a slide into lower and more culturally idiosyncratic practices. It generally starts with campy banners and popular-style hymnody, but may end with synthesizers and scantily-clad liturgical dancers. These liturgies are not beautiful or uplifting. They’re more like a never-ending hug from a grasping, obsequious aunt.  [She just earned my Gold Star for the Day for that line.]

I have sometimes heard this sort of liturgy referred to as “feminine” or “effeminate.” I don’t especially like that, because I don’t believe that bad liturgy is really representative of what women have to offer. I’m a woman, and I hate schlocky liturgy. I don’t believe I would become more womanly by embracing tambourine bands, [Doesn’t she like tambourines?] or receiving Communion in the hand. Still, there’s no doubt that women are more apt to produce bad liturgy. Perhaps we could say that it is “feminine” in the same way that pornography is “masculine”: it shows us some characteristic defects of one sex in particular.

My husband suggests that men’s liturgical sensibilities may reflect differences in how they tend to perceive God. It’s natural to men to regard the Almighty as a supremely great captain or general. He is the ultimate one in charge. Worship, for men, is somewhat akin to a military salute: it should be austere and magnificent because the goal is to honor our Creator.

Women’s natural orientation is more interpersonal. They are more likely to perceive God as loving and solicitous. Think of a grown woman affectionately referring to her father as Daddy (and then imagine how ridiculous that would sound coming from a man). It is perhaps not strange, then, that female-engineered liturgies tend to feel more like a hug (and to incorporate more actual hugs).

 

[…]

Read the rest there.

Fr. Z kudos.

Do you remember the now long running polls?

Does an all-male sanctuary foster vocations to the priesthood? (Revisited)

View Results

Does female service at the altar harm or suppress vocations to the priesthood?

View Results

 

Posted in Fr. Z KUDOS, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, POLLS, Priests and Priesthood, Seminarians and Seminaries | Tagged ,
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HEART WATCH! DAY 3: His Hermeneuticalness’ Health UPDATE

Posted on 19 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

15_12_19_heart_watchHere is your HHH UPDATE for Day 3 of…

HEART WATCH!

Fr. Finigan is in the hospital after a
“Minor Cardiac Episode.”

“Minor”?  Pffft.  What’s that?  Minor, perhaps in that it could have been worse, but there’s no “minor: when it comes to the ticker.

His Hermeneuticalness is bored, but brilliantly so.

He is at present struggling with The Mindray.

It’s presence in his life seems to have presented a number of … how shall we call them… challenges.

I’m confident that, Dante like, he shall on the other side emerge to see the stars.

What shall become of Fr. Finigan and the Mindray?

Go HERE to read the rest!

Posted in Mail from priests | Tagged
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Prayers for His Hermeneuticalness, Fr. Finigan

Posted on 18 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My good friend Fr. Tim Finigan, His Hermeneuticalness, the PP in Margate, is presently in the hospital. HERE

In your kindness will you remember him in your prayers? Say a Rosary for him.

Posted in Mail from priests, PRAYER REQUEST, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged
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WDTPRS 4th Sunday of Advent (2002MR): Seeing is believing.

Posted on 18 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The 4th Sunday’s Collect is also the Post Communion for the Feast of the Annunciation (25 March) in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (1962MR).

The Annunciation was the moment of the Incarnation of our Lord.

Therefore, on that feast and on Christmas, during the Creed of Holy Mass according to the Ordinary Form, we bend our knees instead of merely bowing at the words “Et incarnatus est…”.

Alas, only on those two days do we kneel during the Creed with the Ordinary Form!   In the Extraordinary Form we always kneel during the Creed at that profound moment.  Such gestures serve to build and reinforce our Catholic Christian identity.  But I digress.

If you recite the Angelus (which has an indulgence), you know today’s Collect.  It was in the 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary.

Gratiam tuam, quaesumus Domine, mentibus nostris infunde, ut qui, Angelo nuntiante, Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur.

The last lines have wonderful alliteration and a snappy final cadence (glóriam perducámur).  Collects are often little treasures.

Cognosco is, generally, “to become thoroughly acquainted with (by the senses or mentally), to learn by inquiring…”, but in the perfect tenses (cognovimus) it is “to know” in all periods of Latin.  Infundo basically is “to pour in, upon, or into” but in the construction (which we see today) infundere alicui aliquid) it is “to pour out for, to administer to, present to, lay before”.  It can mean, “communicate, impart”.  Perduco, “to lead or bring through”, is “guide a person or thing to a certain goal”.  It can also mean “to drink off, quaff”, a nice counterpoint to infundo.

A LITERAL RENDERING:

We beg You, O Lord, pour Your grace into our minds and hearts, so that we who came to know the incarnation of Christ Your Son in the moment the Angel was heralding the news, may be guided through His Passion and Cross to the glory of the resurrection.

That angelo nuntiante is an ablative absolute. By its “present” tense it is contemporary with the time of the past tense in cognovimus.  Thus, in the very moment the Angel was heralding the good news, we (collectively in the shepherds) knew about how God the Son, who had taken our whole human nature into an indestructible bond with His divinity, was being born into this world.  The shepherds then rushed to the Coming of the Lord to see the Word made flesh lying in His wooden manger, which foreshadowed His wooden Cross.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

Lord, fill our hearts with your love, and as you revealed to us by an angel the coming of your Son as man, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his resurrection.

NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011):

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.

“Seeing is believing”, they say, but believing makes us want to see.  “Crede ut intellegas!  Believe that you may understand!” is a common theme for St. Augustine of Hippo (+430 – e.g., s. 43,4.7; 118,1; Io. eu. tr. 29,6).

Today many people pit faith against reason, authority against intellect, as if they were mutually exclusive.

Faith and authority are indispensible for a fuller rational, intellectual apprehension of anything.  In all the deeper questions of human existence, we need the illumination that comes from grace and revelation. We must receive and believe.  Faith is the foundation of our hope, which leads to love and communion with God, as Augustine would say (trin. 8,6).

When we hear about something or learn a new thing we often rush to know more, to have personal experience, to see.  This is a paradigm for our life of faith.

There is an interlocking cycle of hearing a proclamation (such as the Gospel at Mass, a homily, or a teaching of the Church) or observing the living testimony of a holy person’s life (such as soon-to-be St. Theresa of Calcutta). Because of an experience of reception, and subsequent pondering, we come to love the content of that which we received.

The content of the prayers Holy Church gives us is the Man God Jesus Christ.

By hearing and pondering and using well these prayers, we come all the better to know Christ and to love Him. In loving Him we desire all the more to know Him.

Acceptance of the authority of the content of our orations at Mass opens previously unknown treasuries which would otherwise be locked.  This is why our translations are so important.  Remember! Our prayers at Mass were composed in Latin.  Some of them are ancient indeed.  They are like treasure boxes which, with the right keys, we can open to find irreplaceable riches.  But I digress.Annunciation Weninger 03Our Blessed Mother, so closely associated with today’s Collect, first received the message of the Angel.

She accepted and believed the message, made it her own.

She pondered it in her heart.

She pronounced her Magnificat.

She brought our Savior into the light of the world.
The angel heralded with authority once again.

The shepherds accepted and believed.They pondered and rushed to Bethlehem.

the-angels-song-and-the-shepherds-visitThey saw the Infant.

They understood the message of the Word made flesh.

They knelt.

They worshiped.

This is the cycle of our experience of the reception of the content of our Faith in worship.  The true content is the person of our Divine Lord.

Posted in ADVENT, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, WDTPRS | Tagged , , , , ,
4 Comments

New Christmas music CDs from St. John Cantius

Posted on 18 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

15_12_18_cantiusNow that we are getting toward the end of Advent you are surely starting to think about your Christmas music situation.  I imagine that most of you have let Advent be Advent so that Christmas can Christmasier.

My friends at St. John Cantius are positively with child to have me write about their new Christmas music CDs.  They have a couple discs for Christmas already, and they are very good.  Now they have two more.

I had received their two new discs just as I was to depart on this present trip to NYC (which ends today).  Thus, I was not able to hear them.  I like to hear or see things that people want me to make known to the readership.

In any event, based on past performance, which is sincerely top notch, I’ll just paste here the complicated web of links they sent and you can take your pick.

Good morning Father
 
SAMPLE MP3’s 
LISTEN TO SEVERAL COMPLETE TRACKS 
ORDER CDs
Thanks so much for your kindness and consideration.
 
Safe travels.

 

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole |
1 Comment

Pope Francis’ 80th year of life. Will he resign? Fr. Z speculates.

Posted on 17 December 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Left-leaning Crux has a piece from left-leaning AP’s left-leaning Nicole Winfield about Pope Francis’ entering his 80th year of life (his 79th birthday is today, 17 December – Happy Birthday, Holy Father… maybe take a few weeks off?  Maybe?).

The AP piece details some of the criticism that the Holy Father has earned in the last couple of years.

I am reminded of speculation about the possibility that Francis might, like Benedict, resign, perhaps when he turns 80 next year.

A lot of people ask me if I think Pope Francis will resign.

As with most of what this Pope does… who knows? Maybe. He has hinted at it.

Were he to resign, I don’t think it would be at his 80th birthday. There is another, more likely scenario.

This Pope is very interested in Aparecida, both Our Lady of Aparecida of 12 October 1517, and the CELAM document issued after the big meeting there in 2007. The document of CELAM from Aparecida, and those from other meetings, seem greatly to have influenced Pope Francis.  (Of course 13 October 2017 will be the 100th anniversary of the final Fatima apparition and the “miracle of the sun.”)

So, were Francis to resign, I suspect that he would wait until the centenary of Aparecida in 2017 (a couple months before he turns 81). He would want to attend that ceremony as Pope. He would then return to Rome and, after the New Year of 2018, he would resign, after Epiphany, when Popes often consecrate bishops.

That would be my guess, were he really thinking about resigning.

In any event, were he to resign, it wouldn’t come like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, as it did with Pope Benedict.  What a day that was.

“But Father! But Father!”, some of you self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagian lefties are ululating, “Do you want Pope to resign? You DO, don’t you!  That’s because you are mean and he’s the first Pope who has ever smiled! He’s the first Pope who has ever kissed a baby.  He is the first Pope ever to be nice to anyone! Before him there was no mercy in the Church. He’s the most wondefullest, fluffiest Pope, ehvur, and you hate Vatican II!”

A lot of people also ask me that.  Honestly, I don’t know.   I have serious concerns about having two retired Popes around, much less one!  I also suppose it would make a huge difference what he does between now and his hypothetical resignation.  You never know.  He could still surprise us all.

In general Popes should not resign.  At least ideally, they should die in office.  On the other hand, in this age of modern medicine, it is possible to keep people alive long after they are sui compos.   Every Pope must now fear that and the inevitable power vacuum it would create. Resignation (or sudden death) would be better than the years-long death of a Pope who cannot rule in any way.  But that depends on the Pope!  Look at the example of life that St. John Paul gave us in his long-suffering to the end.

The years of our life are threescore and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Ps 90:10

Popes change because of resignation (rare) and death (99.9%) either by natural causes or by murder.  Many of the early Popes were murdered, martyred, by enemies of Christianity.  Some later Popes were murdered too.  The way things are going today, it doesn’t tax the imagination much to posit assassination attempts against this Pope by Muslims. HERE The enemies of Christianity are on the rise.  And who and where are the biggest targets of all Christianity?  The Pope and Rome.

It’s horrid to think about, but we have to be smart and attentive and consider this possibility, not just for the Pope, but other Church leaders too.

Imagine were that – quod Deus avertat – to take place!  Were some Islamist plot to take out the Holy Father… would that galvanize the West to act in regard to Islamic jihad?  I’ll bet it would.  Martyr this super-visible, populist Pope?  The mind reels at the possible fall out.   I actually have the start of a novel that includes this scenario.  It’s about a fictional Pope, of course.  Two large trucks hurtle up the Via della Conciliazione during a General Audience. The Pope refuses to suspend audiences even in the face of credible threats.  The first truck takes out the barriers.  The second, with its enormous explosive load and hundreds of thousands of projectiles, smashes through the crowds like a ball through pins past the obelisk to detonate on the sacrato of the Basilica. Each day the conditions in the world are more and more resembling the scenario I first sketched out a few years back (yes, before this pontificate was even dreamt of).

Were Francis to resign while still relatively healthy for an octogenarian and at the height of his popularity then… what? Return to Argentina?  He would be a really interesting figure to watch, on the loose in the world, wouldn’t he!  ¡Hagan lío!

Whether he resigns or not is up to him in dialogue with his Maker. As I have written before, resign or not resign, this pontificate, like all others, is a parenthesis in God’s plan for us and His Church.  Most of us reading this will outlive Pope Francis and see more Popes in the years to come, unless Our Lord has some other plan.

Maranatha!  Veni et noli tardare!

That said, were Francis to resign sooner rather than later, I would be able to resuscitate the “REELECT BENEDICT” swag in my Cafe Press store! HERE and reassemble the Committee to Re-Elect The Pope.

So long as this Pope is the Pope, pray for him daily.  And please add a prayer also for Pope Benedict.

The moderation queue is, of course, ON.  Don’t bother writing anything if your intent is simply to bash Pope Francis.  I don’t want that here.

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