Controversial Book about Pope Francis: “The Dictator Pope”

Posted on 5 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE:

I am just about done with this.  It’s quite a read.  Among other things it is a summary of events of the last few years.

At the pace of the modern world, one forgets.

It is in English, too.  Links below.

Originally posted 1 Dec:

I have had many emails asking me about the new book by the pseudo-anonymous “Marcantonio Colonna” called Il Papa Dittatore (The Dictator Pope).

In Italian – US HERE – UK HERE

It is available IN ENGLISH

US HERE – UK HERE

It is not flattering.  Some of it resonates with what I have picked up in my last visits to Rome and conservations with friends who still labor there.  There is a really bad environment in Rome right now.  The tension is so thick that you could cut it with chainsaw… maybe.

REMEMBER: Most of you do not have to read this stuff.  Some of us do.  Most do not.  Be wary, in yourself, of the vice of curiositas.  Yes, there is a kind of “curiosity” which leads to sin.

Also, I think this is only for Kindle.

So… here’s your chance to get a Kindle!

If you don’t have one already, what’s up with that?

There are several to choose from.  This is the Paperwhite.  I have one of these and it is marvelous.

US HERE – UK HERE

There are several iterations of the gizmo.  Some connect only to WiFi, others also to cellular data (its a great feature for travel, but it costs more).  Some have “ads” some don’t (its cheaper if you allow the “rest” screen to suggest books).

It’s “backlit”.  The battery lasts for many hours.  Books download in a jiffy.  You can share most books, and with a level of membership you can read many titles for free.

If you have have more than one Kindle, which will also play audiobooks from Audible, they will “sync” with each other, so you can start on another instrument without searching for your page.  Spiffy.

I dearly love “real” books.  However, I read a lot more books now than I did before.  The Kindle is light and small and stores zillions of titles.   Also, there are some books which I don’t want to buy and have lying around afterward.  I have so many books in my place and in storage that it could be a set for a scene in a dystopian movie.  (Yes, squirrel away a Kindle with lots of “survival” and reference materials in a Faraday cage while you can.)

Anyway, back to the book in question.

You don’t have to tell me about it, I already have it (I was provided with it a while ago).

I am told that there will be an English language version.  I don’t know when.

No, I won’t tell you the author’s real name (a question that has come up several times in email).  Won’t. Do. It… unless the author says it’s okay, and by then it will be out anyway.  So, stop asking that, please.

UPDATE

Fr. Hunwicke has some comments.

Posted in Francis, REVIEWS, The Drill | Tagged ,
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INTERNET PRAYER UPDATE: ICELANDIC!

Posted on 5 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I’t a banner day when I get a new language!

New readers here may not know that The Internet Prayer, which I wrote in Latin a zillion years ago now, has been put into many languages. I have gathered all that I have found onto one page. Some translations have been given approval by bishops, and some have been offered by people of good will. For example, I haven’t yet been able to obtain ecclesiastical approval for the Klingon version. Check it out. HERE

I received an email with a translation of The Internet Prayer into

ICELANDIC

Bæn á undan innskráningu á internetið:

Almáttugi og eilífi Guð, sem skapaðir okkur í þinni mynd og skipaðir okkur að leita alls þess sem er gott, satt og fagurt, sérstaklega í guðdómlegri persónu þíns eingetna Sonar, Drottins vors Jesú Krists, gef okkur, þess biðjum við, að fyrir fyrirbænir HeilagsÍsidórs, biskups og kirkjufræðara, megum við á ferð okkar um netheima beina höndum okkar og augum aðeins að því sem þóknast þér og að við komum fram af kærleika og þolinmæði við allar þær sálir sem verða á vegi okkar. Fyrir hinn sama Krist, Drottin vorn. Amen.

Very cool. Prof. Tolkien would be pleased, even though it involves this new fangled internet thing (which will never catch on).

I welcome new translations. Please also send THE TITLE in the other language.

Also, if you are a native speaker, please record it too! I’m still waiting for the update to the Klingon version.

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VIDEO @Michael_Voris makes an appeal. ACTION ITEM!

Posted on 5 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the last couple of years I’ve written more than once about the Church’s attribute of indefectibility.  In a nutshell, the Church’s members may err or fail, but the Church cannot.

Which leads me to advance a video that Michael Voris made.

He makes a good appeal. Have a listen.

I think that Michael struck the right tone here.  We are in seriously troubling times.  However, the troubles of these times also present opportunities for learning well and reasserting and articulating with conviction all that the Church teaches.

We need everyone to get on board with dedicated spiritual programs of prayer and mortifications.

Learn your Faith.

Pray.  Pray especially before the Blessed Sacrament.  Pray the Rosary.  Pray to St. Michael and other saints who are you personal and local patrons.

GO TO CONFESSION.

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Campus Telephone Pole, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged ,
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A new “manifesto” in Rome urging prayers for the Pope

Posted on 4 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you remember that, no too long ago, some wags in Rome clandestinely slapped up some posters “manifesti” on the walls of Rome addressing themselves – in the Roman way – to Pope Francis?   The posters were hurriedly removed.

Now I read from Marco Tosatti that there are new “manifesti”, small in format, with various petitions.

The manifesto features a smiling Francis surrounded by a Rosary and these petitions (my translations and comments):

  • perché Roma torni alla fede [That Rome return to the faith]
  • perché la Madonna venga prima di Lutero [That Mary come before Luther – a reference surely to the horrid stamp from the Vatican Post featuring Luther and Melanchthon beneath the Cross]
  • perché la fede venga prima della politica [that faith come before politics]
  • perché Pannella e Bonino non siano più additati come esempi [that Pannella and Bonino not be taken as exemplary – The former is the architect of divorce laws, the later infamously pro-abortion.]
  • perché il papa torni a parlare con i cardinali prima che con i giornalisti [that the Pope starts again to speak with cardinals before journalists – surely a reference to the Four Dubia Cardinals v. superannuated Communist editor Eugenio Scarfari.]
  • perché il papa non perseguiti sacerdoti e ordini religiosi che non gli piacciono [that the Pope not persecute priests and religious orders that he doesn’t like – perhaps referring to the 3 CDF officials that were sacked and also to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate – today I read at Rorate that their sisters are forbidden now to accept postulants.  HERE]
  • perché il papa non taccia davanti a chi combatte famiglia e vita. [that the Pope not remain silent towards those who fight for the family and for life – If I recall, the March for Life in Rome got a cool reception from His Holiness]

The essential message is clear: pray for the Rosary for Pope Francis.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Put this together with the posters of last February and also with TODAY’s release of the sharply critical book, in Italian and now in English, by the pseudoanonymous “Marcantonio Colonna”, The Dictator Pope (more about that HERE and buy today in English US HERE – UK HERE), and you see that resistance is rising towards, at least, those who surround the Pope and towards the Pope himself.

And wasn’t there an incident in Rome recently involving a truck with a billboard about the late Card. Caffara, which was shushed away from the area around Vatican City?

REMEMBER: As I wrote the other day,

Most of you do not have to read this stuff.  Some of us do.  Most do not.  Be wary, in yourself, of the vice of curiositas.  Yes, there is a kind of “curiosity” which leads to sin.

This manifesto, however, frames the problems in prayers.  Is it critical of the Pope?  The petitions are clearly also statements of discontent with the present state of affairs.

It is always good to pray for the Pope.

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

Posted in Francis, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, What are they REALLY saying? | Tagged , ,
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Just Too Cool! Voyager fires its thrusters for the first time in 37 years.

Posted on 3 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Recently I re-watched the movie The Martian, which is also a novel.  [US HERE – UK HERE  I understand that the author has a new book out.] I find it inspiring.

We  encounter challenges.  We work the problems.  We face our greatest challenge, our salvation, alone.

We can get advice from others, but we really are alone in working out our salvation with fear and trembling, close to but distant from others. The character in the movie faces a lot of challenges alone.

We all, on the other hand, for our spiritual lives have the help of angels and saints and of actual graces!

In a sense, in this life, we are all in this together and we have to help each other out, for the love of God and neighbor.  But when it comes down to responsibility for our actions, when it comes to our Judgment… we face those things by ourselves and stand alone before the Just Judge.

Speaking of being alone, I spotted this nifty story at Space.com.  “The Martian”, in the movie and book, uses old technology (a couple of different kinds) to overcome his challenges.  So, too, those who handle Voyager.

Voyager 1 Just Fired Up its Backup Thrusters for the 1st Time in 37 Years

NASA’s far-flung Voyager 1 spacecraft has taken its backup thrusters out of mothballs.

Voyager 1 hadn’t used its four “trajectory correction maneuver” (TCM) thrusters since November 1980, during the spacecraft’s last planetary flyby — an epic encounter with Saturn. But mission team members fired them up again Tuesday (Nov. 28), to see whether the TCM thrusters were still ready for primetime.

The little engines passed the test with flying colors, NASA officials said.

“The Voyager team got more excited each time with each milestone in the thruster test,” Todd Barber, a propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. “The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all.”

[…]

“The Voyager flight team dug up decades-old data and examined the software that was coded in an outdated assembler language, to make sure we could safely test the thrusters,” Chris Jones, chief engineer at JPL, said in the same statement.

[…]

Interesting.

How about an analogy.

The hotshots who handle Voyager dug up stuff from way back in the probes past and used it creatively to give new live to the spacecraft.

Even as we see now that the Catholic Church is, demographically dying in these wealthy USA, and she is being shoved farther and farther to the periphery, some bishops and priests are injecting new life into their flocks through the rediscovery of tradition.

We can benefit a great deal from the past.  We must be careful not to rush to scrap things that some claim are obsolete.

Also…

GO TO CONFESSION!

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 3 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As we begin this new liturgical year, was there a good point made in the sermon you heard during the Holy Mass in fulfillment your of Sunday Obligation?

Let us know.

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ASK FATHER: How can I approach my Bishop about getting a Traditional Latin Mass? 

Posted on 2 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

How can I approach my Bishop about getting us a Traditional Latin Mass because I keep running from one parish to another looking for Holy Mass?

It has been some 10 years now since Summorum Pontificum, Benedict XVI’s “Emancipation Proclamation”.  In that juridical document, Benedict said that the Roman Rite is in two forms.  If priests have faculties to say Mass, they can choose either form without any additional permissions.  Furthermore, Benedict said that pastors of parishes can, on their own, implement the Traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) in their parishes without any additional permissions from the bishop.

It has been 10 years since this is the law, and people still ask about getting the bishop to do something.

Getting the bishop to do something is only a concern when your parish priests are uncooperative.

You, first, go to your parish priests and work with them.

Make sure that you have a group of people who want this and are – this is important – willing and able to do all the work it takes to organize and train servers, buy and care for vestments, books, altar cards, etc.

Be willing to spend the money to send a priest to get some training if he cannot get it locally.

Keep in mind that priests who don’t know Latin and who don’t have experience of the older, traditional form can be really intimidated by the prospect of learning it.  Also, some priests of a certain age have an irrational, knee-jerk hostility toward it.

You have to learn to be diplomats.

Think ahead.  Think strategically.  Keep your goals in mind and then find ways to achieve them without working against yourselves.   Always consider: “What’s the best way to accomplish X?”, and then avoid what will undermine your objective.

Step up and be involved in the life of the parish all around.  Be visible, active, helpful,  and cheerful.

Do NOT give the priest the impression that you are trying to create a division in the parish.

Remember that priests have a lot to do.  If you come at them with something that sounds hard and complicated and time consuming, and if you are pushy or arrogant about it, you might not achieve your goal.

The bottom line is get organized and work with the priest.

If the priest – over time – is uncooperative then you can have recourse to the bishop and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

It might be helpful here were some of the readers to share their success stories (underscoring what worked) and also the defeat stories (underscoring where they may have put their foot wrong).

And if you get what you want, please, please, please don’t lord it over anyone else or run down the Novus Ordo or put on airs.

I know one parish where a small group who prefer the TLM are starting to be jerks about it.  So the pastor tells me.

KNOCK IT OFF.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged
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“Perhaps we have arrived at the End Times.”

Posted on 1 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At the UK’s best Catholic weekly, the Catholic Herald, there is an interview with His Eminence, Raymond Leo Card. Burke.

‘Perhaps we have arrived at the End Times’: an interview with Cardinal Burke

[…]

CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE In the present moment there is confusion and error about the most fundamental teachings of the Church, for example with regard to marriage and the family. For instance, the idea that people who are living in an irregular union could receive the sacraments is a violation of the truth with regard both to the indissolubility of marriage and to the sanctity of the Eucharist.

St Paul tells us in his First Letter to the Corinthians that before we approach to receive the Body of Christ, we have to examine ourselves, or we eat our condemnation by receiving the Eucharist in an unworthy way. Now the confusion in the Church is going even further than that, because there is today confusion as to whether there are acts which are intrinsically evil and this, of course, is the foundation of the moral law. When this foundation begins to be questioned within the Church, then the whole order of human life and the order of the Church itself are endangered.

So there is a feeling that in today’s world that is based on secularism with a completely anthropocentric approach, by which we think we can create our own meaning of life and meaning of the family and so on, the Church itself seems to be confused. In that sense one may have the feeling that the Church gives the appearance of being unwilling to obey the mandates of Our Lord. Then perhaps we have arrived at the End Times.

[…]

He is also asked about the “formal correction” in regard to the Dubia. He explains his present appointments. He opines about the first thing that any new Pope should do.

Card. Burke has called our times “realistically apocalyptic”.

Our Lord explained signs that would precede the End and His Second Coming (which we look for when we say Holy Mass ad orientem.  He describes those harrowing times. We heard the Gospel reading in the EF last Sunday. Also, the Lord said:

When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning: Today there will be a storm, for the sky is red and lowering. You know then how to discern the face of the sky: and can you not know the signs of the times?

Paul wrote to Timothy:

For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.

Since the Ascension of the Lord, Christians have known and deeply felt that we are in the “end times”.  Sometimes that feeling is stronger than others.  It is almost as if it rushes towards us and then – something happens to hold it off just a little longer.

Once there were Masses and Acts of Reparation.  People offered their pains.  Convents of religious did penance and adored the Blessed Sacrament in silence.  Our Lady appeared with dire warnings but also with descriptions of what we were to do.

Now there are many many fewer of all these things, and Our Lady was not heeded.

Who knows how these factors, back in the day, held us back from the apocalyptic tipping point.

Who knows how the blasphemies and sacrileges, the indifference, is escatologically hurtling us to the end.

Here I will track back to what I have written before, long ago now, as a kind of manifesto.

Save The Liturgy – Save The World (2007)


The Eucharist, its celebration and itself as the extraordinary Sacrament, is the “source and summit of Christian life”.

If we really believe that, then we must also hold that what we do in church, what we believe happens in a church, makes an enormous difference.

Do we believe the consecration really does something? Or, do we believe what is said and how, what the gestures are and the attitude in which they made are entirely indifferent? For example, will a choice not to kneel before Christ the King and Judge truly present in each sacred Host, produce a wider effect?

If you throw a stone, even a pebble, into a pool it produces ripples which expand to its edge. The way we celebrate Mass must create spiritual ripples in the Church and the world.

So does our good or bad reception of Holy Communion.

So must violations of rubrics and irreverence.

Mass is not merely a “teaching moment” or a “celebration of unity” or a “tedious obligation”. Our choice of music, architecture, ceremonies and language affect more than one small congregation in one building. We are interconnected in both our common human nature and in baptism. When we sin we hurt the whole Body of Christ the Church.

If that is true for sin, it must also be true for our liturgical choices. They must also have personal and corporate impact. Any Mass can be offered for the intentions of the living or the dead.

Not even death is an obstacle to the efficacy of Holy Mass.

Celebrate Mass well, participate properly – affect the whole world. Celebrate poorly – affect the whole world.

In each age since Christ’s Ascension, people have felt they were in the End Times. They were right. In any moment, when the conditions are right, the Lord could return.

Considering what is happening in the world now, I am pushed to think about the way Mass is being celebrated, even the number of Masses being celebrated. Once there were many communities of contemplatives, spending time before the Blessed Sacrament or in contemplation, in collective and in private prayer. There were many more Masses.

Many more people went to confession.

Who can know how they all lifted burdens from the world and turned large and small tides by their prayers to God for mercy and in reparation for sin?

A single droplet of Christ’s Precious Blood consecrated at Holy Mass is the price of every soul ever created in God’s unfathomable plan.

So I repeat:


Posted in Four Last Things, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Our Catholic Identity, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, Turn Towards The Lord | Tagged , , ,
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ACTION ITEM! Help a true contributor to TLM causes after horrible vandalism

Posted on 1 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This HORRIBLE news just arrived.

SPORCH needs you now. HERE

Keep in mind that this nice lady, Mary, whom I’ve met, has through her efforts made it possible for many priests to have beautiful materials for Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

In her own way, her business is as helpful for the promotion of the Extraordinary Form as those who, say, teach priests how to say it.  Beauty attracts people.  Beauty helps the priest.

Read this.  GRRRRRR!!!!

Last Saturday night, vandals smashed their way into the offices of SPORCH (Society for Preserving Our Roman Catholic Heritage). [Among other things, she makes the super useful “travel” altar cards for the TLM.  For example HERE] The police have little sign of attempted theft or any apparent rationale for the crime – all evidence points simply to a malicious intent to inflict damage. To add insult to injury, the vandals ruptured the plumbing to flood the building after wreaking havoc on its contents. Here’s a photo of two statues that had been knocked to the ground and desecrated – your readers will note it was the faces of the rare and historic matching set of century-old statues Our Lord and Our Lady below that were attacked:  [below]

On your blog you have displayed beautiful examples of the work done by my friend Mary, the founder and operator of SPORCH.  [Many times. Beautiful things.] For years, as a non-profit labor of love, Mary has created reproductions of altar cards and travel altar cards for the traditional Latin mass. She also restores traditional Catholic art, with the intent of getting it back into circulation. Altarpieces, statues, and all manner of pieces she has salvaged from demolished churches have been returned to use around the nation. Many priests and seminarians around the globe have been the beneficiaries of Mary’s generosity, including Cardinal Burke, who has publicly praised her work.
This vandalism was very costly, and Mary is now struggling to rebuild. I happen to know she relies almost entirely on donations (including her own contributions from her unrelated “day job” earnings) to keep the non-profit SPORCH viable. [Did you get that?]
Would you please ask your readers to pray for the conversion of the vandals, who have as of yet not been apprehended, and that Mary will have all necessary help in repairing and replacing her equipment and inventory, including care of the statues pictured? Below is a link to her donation page – I hope and pray that your readers will be very generous in assisting. Perhaps we can turn this sacrilege, which so saddens our hearts, into something positive. Donations are tax-deductible. Thank you and God bless you and all of your readers!

Everyone, in your charity, please send a donation, even if it must be small.

Many small donations will have a considerable impact and there are many of you.

Look at this and weep.

It’s hard to look at, knowing that it was done in malice.

Random?  Part of The Coming Storm?

It feels like a microcosm of so much that is going on in the world and… in the Church.

Fight back.

Let’s help her get things going again.   Young priests and seminarians are going to need what she makes.  Please please please.

Donations are tax-deductible

>>HERE<<

Posted in ACTION ITEM!, Cri de Coeur, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged ,
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Do today’s Jesuits aid and abet a militant anti-Catholic counter religion?

Posted on 1 December 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today at The Catholic Thing (btw… did you know that was the title of a book by Rosemary Haughton?) there is a perspicacious offering called

Pascal and the Jesuits [which could be the name of a discordant band]

It seems to me (I’m hardly alone) that many clerical leaders (priests and bishops) are relatively “soft” on matters related to sexual sin – fornication, unmarried cohabitation, abortion, and homosexuality. It’s not that they approve of these things; they just don’t go out of their way to condemn them.

[…]

Qui tacet consentire videtur?

He goes on to distinguish three types of Christians, “serious… ordinary…bad”.   The second, because they are rather tepid, are dangerous for the faith and the Church in the present milieu.

Going on…

[…]

And so, to make sure these folks, the great majority of Catholics, don’t leave the Church, thereby not only damaging the religion but endangering their own salvation, the Church loosens the reins on these people. If they don’t believe everything the Church believes, oh well, let’s not make a fuss about it. And if they have incorrigible habits of sin, well, let’s not make them feel uncomfortable by publicly condemning the sins they’re prone to; and let’s tell them that God is forgiving and tolerant; and let’s remind them that all sins can be instantaneously wiped away in the confessional or on a good deathbed. Above all, let’s tell them that, practically speaking, the goal of this life (except for a rare few) is not Heaven but Purgatory; in other words, you don’t have to get an A-plus in sanctity, a C-minus will do just fine.  [A horrid thing to tell people!]

In his Provincial Letters, Blaise Pascal (a Class 1 Catholic if ever there was one) finds fault with the Jesuits of his day for bending Catholicism so that it will accommodate the un-Christian code of honor that was then typical of upper-class gentlemen. In one of the more hilarious letters, Pascal tells of a Jesuit casuist (some things never change) who figured out a way for a gentleman to participate in a duel while not, technically speaking, violating the Catholic rule that dueling is a mortal sin.

[…]

And then there are the James Martins of the world, whose influence is at least enervating if not downright pernicious….

[…]

When the Jesuits tolerated, say, the morality of 17th century French gentlemen – a morality that included dueling and “gallantry” (as upper-class adultery was euphemistically called) – they were not tolerating a non- or anti-Catholic religion. They were tolerating – however much we may laugh about it – an un-Catholic code of manners and morals, quite a different thing.

But when today’s Jesuits (and other Catholic clerics) are “soft” on sex-related sins, including homosexuality, they are doing much more than making a calculated accommodation to an un-Christian code of manners. They are tolerating a sexual ethic that is part and parcel of an increasingly militant anti-Catholic religion.

What religion is that? Secular humanism, a comprehensive worldview that is tantamount to a (God-less) religion. Dueling in 17th century upper-class Paris was bad, but it was not an affirmation of an anti-Catholic religion. By contrast, abortion and homosexuality in 21st century America truly are affirmations of a growing and decidedly anti-Catholic quasi-religion.

Catholic leaders from the pope on down need to wake up to the nature of that new mortal threat.

I often remark to myself that some clerics today “belong to another religion”.  They sure don’t seem to be Catholic in a lot of important ways.

Be sure to read the whole piece over at The Catholic Thing.  There’s quite a bit more and it’s good.

 

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