Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

ASK FATHER: Newly wedded couple kissing during wedding Mass?

Posted on 22 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a priest…

QUAERITUR:

Do you think it is appropriate for a newly wed couple to share a kiss at their wedding mass? If so, the only place in the Ordinary Form I can think of it happening is at the very end, before they process out.

No.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged kiss, marriage, weddings
25 Comments

ASK FATHER: Excommunication after abortion and absolution

Posted on 21 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

When I was very far away from the Church in apostasy, I asked a girl to take emergency contraception (not sure if she was pregnant). I knew that this was an excommunicable act, but I persisted because I hated the Church and I wanted nothing to do with it. A few years ago, I realized all the evil I’ve done and I have been striving through tears and penance to make some atonement for all I did out of hatred and disobedience. Back then, I was referred by the local Chancery to the priest nearest me for Confession, but I’m not sure the person who referred me understood the need for faculties to rescind excommunication. Recently, I confessed this sin to a priest who told me that all priests were given such faculties by John Paul II and he could restore me to Communion–he seemed very certain. I tried to contact the local Chancery to arrange Confession with the Bishop, but to no avail. I weep for my sins and I want to be reconciled to God and his Church. How can I do properly do penance? Should I trust what the priest recently told me? Should I continue to call the Chancery? Should I refrain from Communion until I have a definite answer? I pray for you, Father, and I ask you to pray for me. Please don’t use any identifying information if this goes on the blog. Thank you and God bless you.

I am not aware of any diocese in these USA where the local bishop has not given his priests the faculty to lift the censure of excommunication for procuring an abortion (c. 1398), as well as the censure of excommunication for committing an act of apostasy (c. 1364).

If the chancery referred you to the priest nearest you, it is safe to assume that all the priests in that diocese have been given the faculty.

The priest who told you that St. John Paul II gave all priests this faculty may have either been confused, or unclear – St. John Paul, in promulgating the 1983 Code, gave bishops the ability to grant this faculty to their priests.

Precisely for these situations, priests who generally use the newer form for the Sacrament of Penance should familiarize themselves with what their faculties are! They should review them on a regular basis with other priests of their diocese to make sure that everyone’s on the same page.

I also suggest that priests review the forms of sacraments, especially that of absolution give in the Sacrament of Penance. C’mon, Fathers! Stop making it up? I digress.

In addition, priests should be familiar with and utilize the formula for lifting an ecclesiastical penalty, found in Appendix I of the Rite of Penance. Although this formula is not required to be used for the valid lifting of a penalty (sacramental absolution with the intent to lift the penalty is sufficient), using the formula can help to ease the consciences of those who have committed acts worthy of censure.

In the older, traditional form, of the formula of absolution, the priest mentions the sorts of censures that he can absolve, along with a phrase meaning “insofar as you need them and I can absolve them”:

May our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you; and by His authority I absolve you from every bond of excommunication (suspension) and interdict, so far as my power allows and your needs require.

For further clarity, folks should have recourse to Dr. Ed Peters’ book, Excommunication and the Catholic Church.

Remember, there is no sin that we little mortals can commit that is so bad that God will not forgive, provided we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. God’s mercy is magnificent and it is ours for the asking.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Emanations from Penumbras, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged abortion, can. 1364, can. 1398, censures, excommunication
6 Comments

Brick by Brick: Fort Worth, TX … Rio Rancho, NM … Minneapolis, MN

Posted on 21 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have had the following bits of good news, for your Brick by Brick file.

First,

Some encouraging news from the Diocese of Fort Worth that I hope you will share with your readers: Bishop Olson will be in choir during the celebration of the High Mass in the Extraordinary Forum at St. Mary of the Assumption on Sunday, July 13, at 5:30 PM. HERE

Then,

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Schedule: 2014/07/07 [That’s 7 July… a special day]
Times: 6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church
1502 Sara Rd. S.E.
Rio Rancho New Mexico 87124
phone 505-892-1511

PONTIFICAL HIGH MASS in the venerable Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, HIS EXELLENCY ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL SHEEHAN CELEBRANT

I don’t think they meant to SHOUT at you.

Also,

Please join us THIS SUNDAY, June 22, for the Archdiocesan Corpus Christi Procession, 2:00-4:00 p.m., starting and ending at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.It will be led by Archbishop Nienstedt. Bring your family and friends for this festive walk the the Minneapolis Community and Technical College and Loring Park with our Eucharistic Lord. Park free in the MCTC ramp next to the Basilica. Ice cream social follows. Rain or shine. Details at www.WalkWithHim.org or call (651) 239-8574.

Visit our website or contact me if you would like more information or can help out on the day of the procession.

Posted in Brick by Brick, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Archd. Santa Fe, Archd. St. Paul and Minneapolis, D. Fort Worth
13 Comments

My View For Awhile

Posted on 21 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Home again, home again… is how the rhyme goes, I believe.

Last night Acton U closed up. Over 1000 people came from over 60 countries. I am always amazed by the diversity of the participants. The other days I was reading some bitter silliness about Acton U and how tribal and polarized it is. I was by a young Protestant pastor, black, with an earring and a Mohawk.

I heard last night that about 60% of the participants were Protestant, and I think many of them were of a charismatic stripe. It was spiffy to see Peter Kreeft field comments and questions from an evangelical Scripture prof.

After the events last night I had a chance to sit with Ross Douthat and swap views on the future, of American society and of the Church, and about Pope Francis. Then I found some other guys including a NYC firefighter (whom I’ve gotten to know over three of these conferences) and we all stayed up way too late. Cigars may have been involved.

One of the take aways this year is the strong sense of urgency that many of the participants feel. Some thing not so nice is around the corner. We have to prepare for it NOW especially through prayer and lots of good works.

Acton U will take place around the same time next year. It’ll be the 10th year and Acton’s 25th. Mark your calendars.

So now, it’s airport shuttle time. Ah the glamor of travel.

Meanwhile, “Economy ‘Comfort'”… not.

At least I was able to get on this flight, which cuts a couple hours out of my journey.

Posted in On the road, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged Acton Institute, Acton U
8 Comments

Acton U 2014: Day 3

Posted on 20 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A bit of a round up from last night. We had as our evening speaker, after supper, Andy Crouch. Afterward, a little pack went for adult beverages and discussion of the burning topics of the day.

This morning it was a pleasure to see at Mass Dr. Peter Kreeft, who will also be giving a couple talks today.

Here is a shot that one of the participants shot from Mass this morning.

The day is yet young, but there is already a high point.

At breakfast a young fellow who is a religion teacher at a Catholic all girls high school told me that, during Lent, he started class each day by playing my podcasts, and, so he related, the girls really liked them. I am left with the amusing image of a class room full of teenage girls listening to Fulton Sheen and Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet.

My first class today is on Religious Liberty and the Challenges of Conscience. I note that Michael Novak is sitting in. We start with Benedict XVI’s statement: “Religious freedom is… an achievement of a sound political and juridical culture.”

UPDATE:

Peter Kreeft is talking now about a paradox: “Are the poor ‘blessed’ if we make them rich?”

What refreshing clarity.

UPDATE

Afternoon session begins to a talk: Distributism: Theory and Critique

After the Distributism lecture, I am back with Peter Kreeft: Truth, Goodness and Beauty in CS Lewis’s Storytelling

UPDATE

Evening events, supper and discussion with Fr Sirico and Ross Douthat.

Nice to sit with Ross at supper. He reads the blog, which is good to know.

Douthat said he had once wanted to be a fantasy novelist. Fr Sirico reposted that Douthat now writes for the New York Times, and the editorial page at that!

Posted in Just Too Cool, On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged Acton Institute, Peter Kreeft, religious liberty
14 Comments

The unsurprising erosion continues

Posted on 19 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It’s like watch a sink hole expand.

From AP:

Presbyterian Pastors Can Preside at Gay Marriages

DETROIT — The largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S. will allow pastors to preside at gay weddings in states that recognize same-sex marriage.

The Presbyterian General Assembly voted 61 percent to 39 percent in favor of allowing ministers to decide whether to perform the ceremonies. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia recognize gay marriage.

The vote came Thursday during a meeting of the church’s top legislative body in Detroit. Later, the General Assembly will also consider whether to change the definition of Christian marriage in the church constitution.

In 2011, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) eliminated barriers to ordaining clergy with same-sex partners. Since then, 428 of the denomination’s more than 10,000 churches have left for other more conservative denominations or have dissolved. The church now has about 1.8 million members.

[…]

Read the rest of this cave-in over there.

Now consider that the very moves that are destroying this community (its not technically a Church), are what liberals such as the catholics at, for example, The Fishwrap think we ought to accept.

Gosh, they’ve worked so well for them, right?

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Liberals, Pò sì jiù, Sin That Cries To Heaven, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Presbyterians
64 Comments

Archbp. Cordileone at the March for Marriage

Posted on 19 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s address at the March for Marriage in Washington DC:

And let us not forget: we must also proclaim this truth especially with love for those who disagree with us on this issue, and most of all, for those who are hostile toward us. We must be careful, though, not to paint our opponents on this issue with broad strokes. There is a tendency in our culture to do this to groups of people the powerful don’t know and think they don’t like. We must not do that. We must recognize that there are people on the other side of this debate who are of good will and are sincerely trying to promote what they think is right and fair. It is misdirected good will. But even those from whom we suffer retribution – and I know some of you have suffered in very serious ways because of your stand for marriage – still, we must love them. That is what our ancestors in faith did, and we must, too. Yes, it is easy to become resentful when you are relentlessly and unfairly painted as a bigot and are punished for publicly standing by the basic truth of marriage as a foundational societal good; it is tempting to respond in kind. Don’t. For those of us who are Catholic, we just heard our Master command us in the gospel proclaimed at Mass the day before yesterday: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44). We must not allow the angry rhetoric to co-opt us into a culture of hate.

Read the rest there.

Posted in One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged Archbp. Cordileone, March for Marriage
11 Comments

“Reception of the Body of Christ when one is publicly unworthy”

Posted on 19 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My friend Fr. Gerald Murray, a canonist, has a good piece at The Catholic Thing about Communion for the divorced and remarried.

Excerpts:

Denial of Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried, however, is not based on an assumption that everyone in an adulterous relationship is in fact subjectively guilty of mortal sin. (Canon law operates on the assumption that we are responsible for our external acts and their consequences, unless the contrary can be demonstrated). The denial is based on the assumption that those who publicly enter into an adulterous union (such as a second civil marriage) are committing objectively grave sinful acts of adultery, thus wounding the Mystical Body of Christ. When that is not the case, say for a couple who live as brother and sister in view of the good of raising their children, they can be admitted to Holy Communion after making a good confession, provided that scandal is avoided.

[…]

The Declaration continues: “But the unworthiness that comes from being in a state of sin also poses a serious juridical problem in the Church: indeed the canon of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches that is parallel to can. 915 CIC of the Latin Church makes reference to the term ‘unworthy’: ‘Those who are publicly unworthy are forbidden from receiving the Divine Eucharist’ (can. 712). In effect, the reception of the Body of Christ when one is publicly unworthy constitutes an objective harm to the ecclesial communion: it is a behavior that affects the rights of the Church and of all the faithful to live in accord with the exigencies of that communion. In the concrete case of the admission to Holy Communion of faithful who are divorced and remarried, the scandal, understood as an action that prompts others towards wrongdoing, affects at the same time both the sacrament of the Eucharist and the indissolubility of marriage. That scandal exists even if such behavior, unfortunately, no longer arouses surprise: [NB] in fact it is precisely with respect to the deformation of the conscience that it becomes more necessary for Pastors to act, with as much patience as firmness, as a protection to the sanctity of the Sacraments and a defense of Christian morality, and for the correct formation of the faithful.”

[…]

Read the rest there. You will enjoy Father’s direct, concise approach and clarity.

Fathers! Rise up and teach, not with misplaced compassion, but with charity in truth.

Posted in Hard-Identity Catholicism, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill | Tagged can. 712, can. 915, Communion, divorce and remarriage, Fr. Gerald Murray, marriage
7 Comments

Acton U 2014: Day 2

Posted on 19 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We are in the second full day of Acton U. Yesterday was tiring, but great.

This morning we had Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Feast of Corpus Christi. We considered for a moment having a short Eucharistic Procession out the door, down the hall, and through the Novus Ordo Mass, which was going on at the same time. Instead of doing that, I compromised with slightly longer elevations.

At breakfast, I sat with a couple seminarians, one from Michigan and one from Kansas, and two nice young ladies who are students at Franciscan University in Steubenville. I had a chat with the later about the differences between the Novus Ordo and the older, traditional form of the Roman Rite.

For my first lecture today: Judaism and the Market Economy.

Second lecture: The State in Catholic Thought

What an incredibly diverse conference this is. There are presentations by Jews and, at least one, Muslim. There are people from 60+ countries and I do know how many denominations. Yesterday we went from a major speech by Judge Andrew Napolitano at midday to a speech by a Japanese Evangelical artist in the evening.

On my way to my second morning talk I passed by a young African American protestant pastor with a mohawk haircut and I sat next to a priest from S. America.

The lectures are structured such that there is a generous Q&A period in each. People really engaged, tussle, challenge. Stimulating!

At lunch today, the same Japanese artist is giving another presentation.

UPDATE

I popped in for Michael Novak’s Q&A.

The state can’t interfere with our duty to God. It is prior to the state.

A priest from Nigeria asking about love in the face of wide spread suffering and persecution.

UPDATE

Afternoon lecture

Both are under threat.

Where did these come from and how are they related? And how is it that the same conditions which led to both, also serve to fuel threats to both.

Later, a point: It may be necessary to go to jail in protest of violations of human dignity. But we can protest and suffer injustice in love rather than in hostility.

Also, this fellow issued a stinging denunciation of crony capitalism.

As Christians we should be grounded in live and equal dignity. As such we can provide a great service.

I always enjoy seeing XP when there is a screen presentation.

Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged Acton Institute, Acton University
4 Comments

Pope Francis: canceling stuff right and left

Posted on 19 June 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Apparently His Holiness of our Lord is drawing X’s through his appointment book. Everything must go! Wednesday audiences, daily semi-public Masses, etc.

In addition to clearing his book for July, tonight in Rome he has chosen not to accompany the Blessed Sacrament from St John Lateran to St Mary Major in the customary procession for Corpus Domini (aka Corpus Christi).

Instead of walking in the procession (he can’t walk that far) with the monstrance to St. Mary Major, he will go separately in a car. Card. Vallini, the Vicar of Rome, will go with the Blessed Sacrament.

Rumors will fly that the Pope is seriously ill. My spies tell me that this is not the case.

UPDATE

At least one outlet has this: HERE

Posted in Francis |
47 Comments