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: In confession, must we say which sins are mortal, which venial?

Posted on 11 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

penance_confession_steps From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I know, to make a good confession, we need to confess mortal sins and the number of times we committed the sins. But I am often confused about whether a sin I committed is mortal or not. So I just go ahead and confess the sins along with the number, whether it is mortal or venial. Is it necessary for a good confession, as opposed to simply preferable, to come up with *which ones* are mortal and *which ones* are venial ? Nowadays, I simply preface my confession with something like “I have a hard time discerning if a sin is mortal or venial, so I just confess them indiscriminately”. Is that good practice ? The priests I confessed to have never inquired any further. And if it is necessary, do I have to mention the sins with the appropriate qualification in my next confession ?

It sounds to me as if you are doing just fine. Don’t worry. Your practice of simply confessing the sins you identify by kind and number is great. If you aren’t quite sure about the gravity of a particular sin, just go ahead and confess it.

We are required to confess all mortal sins in kind and number. We may confess venial sins. You may say “These are my venial sins….”, if you wish. You don’t have to. You don’t have to confess your sins in order of gravity or severity. Just confess them all sincerely. If it helps you to be orderly, great! Be orderly. If you confess venial sins, they are forgiven too, along with the more serious ones. As a matter of fact, your unconfessed venial sins are also forgiven along with the mortal sins.

So long as we do our best and make a sincere confession of the serious sins which we can remember, all our sins are forgiven, mortal, venial, those we remember and confessed, those we don’t remember… all of them.

To make a good confession, it helps to examine your conscience every evening. That way we keep tabs on ourselves more easily, and when it comes time to go to confession we are better prepared and more comfortable in getting it all out. Also, we know ourselves better, which is important.

And for everyone out there reading this who has not gone for a while, for whatever reason…

What happens when you make your sincere confession? What happens even if you sincerely can’t remember every thing?

WHAMO! All your sins will be forgiven, taken away, gone. They aren’t simply overlooked, or covered over. They are eradicated, washed clean in the Blood of the Lamb, never to be held against you when you come to your judgment.

Also, and this is important, there is no sin so horrible that we little mortals can commit that God will not forgive provide we ask for forgiveness.

Though your sins be red as scarlet, they will become as white as snow.

So, dear readers, look at your life with honesty, and go to confession. That’s it. Then you will be able to go to Communion again just as if it were your First Holy Communion all over again.

If you are nervous, or don’t know quite what to do, just say that to the priest: “Father, it’s been awhile and I’m not quite sure how to start. Could you give me a hand?” Easy. Remember that you, and not the priest, are your own prosecuting attorney.

To repeat, there is no sin that we little mortals can commit that is so bad that our almighty, loving 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.

GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, GO TO CONFESSION, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged confession, mortal sin, sacrament of penance, venial sin
12 Comments

A legendary living Latinist

Posted on 11 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at Laudator Temporis Acti, which I check every day, there is a great post about legendary Latinist Fr Reginald Foster, OCD, who for decades worked in the Holy See’s office of Latin Letters writing official documents in the Church’s language. Fr Foster also taught Latin at the Gregorian University for all comers, from beginners to the well-experienced… until the Jesuits threw him out… to their eternal shame. HERE

The following, which Foster delivered at the beginning session of each year, is absolutely true, as Reggie’s students will raucously attest.

One of the Greatest Things That Ever Happened

Alexander Stille, “Latin Fanatic: A Profile of Father Reginald Foster,” American Scholar 63.4 (Autumn, 1994) 497-526 (at 499):

“You don’t have to be all that intelligent, but Latin takes a little bit of toughness,” he growls. “I hope you are all here voluntarily. I don’t like the idea that some of you have been pushed into this classroom by some requirement,” a word he pronounces with the utmost scorn and distaste. “Because if that’s the case, I’d like to push you right back out. If you have to take Latin and don’t want to, there is a list here, and you can just put your name on it and leave. And I will give you a passing grade for the year. I’m interested in teaching Latin to people who want to learn. So, if you don’t like me or you don’t like Latin, then you can leave and that will be that. Got it? If you want to learn Latin, we’ll learn Latin. I don’t care if you are registered. You can sit here for five years and not be registered. I don’t know how much they’re charging downstairs — I think it’s too much.”

Id.:

“Why do you want to study Latin? The question is, Why don’t people want to study Latin?” he asks the class in a loud rhetorical shout, pacing back and forth in front of the blackboard. “If you don’t know Latin, you know nothing! I had my first experience of Latin forty years ago, and I have not been bored by Latin for ten minutes in these forty years. Latin is one of the greatest things that ever happened in human history.”

When Foster begins to shift into high gear, he picks up in speed and volume, like a high-performance car moving into overdrive. “If you don’t know Latin, you’re sitting out there on the sidelines — don’t worry, most of the world is out there with you. But if you want to see what’s going on in this whole stream of two thousand years’ worth of gorgeous literature, then you need Latin.”

Id. (at 500):

“People are not told what Latin is all about,” Foster says. “They are just told to memorize all the forms, the conjugations and declensions. Latin has nothing to do with memorization. Every bum and prostitute in ancient Rome spoke Latin and they didn’t learn it by memorization. Got it?”

With help, Foster is publishing volumes which describe – if that’s possible in a book – his approach to Latin. The first volume is out. I believe the next volume will contain his renowned home work sheets, his ludi domestici. I don’t care how good your Latin was, those sheets gave you a work out! They made Ivy League profs break down like little girls.

US HERE – UK HERE

Fr. Foster is now in Milwaukee where he still teaches Latin to interested students during the summer.

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Just Too Cool | Tagged Fr. Reginald Foster, Latin
20 Comments

ASK FATHER: How to build Catholic identity at a Catholic college?

Posted on 10 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

I am a dean at a Catholic college in the US. The majority of faculty and administrators are not Catholic. How does one work to make progress on Ex Corde Ecclesiae when there is passive / semi-active resistance against strengthening Catholic identity and a disheartening air of indifferentism on campus?

Ah… Ex corde Ecclesiae… nearly as ignored as Veterum sapientia!

GUEST RESPONSE from a priest friend in college level admin:

The first rule of war is “Know your enemy.”

In this case, the enemy is legion. It’s all of the academic administrators, deans, and tenured faculty who are objectively hostile to and reject the Church and Her teaching. This enemy takes the form of search committees intentionally formed to reject those candidates who take seriously the Church and Her teaching, the departmental hierarchies intentionally put in place to hire those made in their image and likeness, the college hierarchies and deans intentionally hired to further ensure that only those candidate who are make in their image and likeness are recommended for hiring, and the academic administrators who intentionally hired those deans and department chairs to ensure this outcome. All the while, the enemy claims that “At XYZ university (or college, it matters not), we hire for mission.”

That is the enemy.

The second rule of war is “Disarm your enemy.”

In this case, disarmament comes through the judicious and wise use of power, meaning, “the ability to get people to do what otherwise they ordinarily wouldn’t do.” It took decades for the enemy to build institutions of Catholic higher education in their image and likeness; therefore, to seek to overturn the system that is currently in place would be a fool’s errand, one causing a palace revolution and rendering the one seeking to wage war dead. Instead, the one seeking to wage war must disarm this enemy slowly but ever so effectively, with intense focus, patience, and persistence. In this regard, academic administrators and deans can be most effective if the measure of success they use to assess themselves in waging war is building a small nucleus of sympathetic senior faculty who mentor junior faculty and who themselves will form a larger nucleus of senior faculty, perhaps only long after those academic administrators and deans who hired them have departed the institution.

The third rule of war is “Have a serious strategy that will strike at the enemy’s heart.”

To disarm this enemy effectively, those academic administrators and deans who seek to wage this war must consider themselves “interim servants” of the mission of Catholic higher education. Their role is not to mount a direct, frontal assault, only to be surrounded on all sides and be decapitated. No, the strategy is to leave the institution better off as Catholic than if those academic administrators and deans hadn’t been there. Any academic administrator or dean who seeks to decapitate and eliminate the enemy in this war will fail, leaving the institution no better off as Catholic than if this individual hadn’t been there. This strategy will slowly strike directly and effectively at the enemy’s heart by sapping it of power as that small nucleus of junior and senior faculty replicate and form a community of professors who, as Bl. John Henry Newman wrote, “think as Catholics do.” From this group will emerge the academic administrators and deans who will slowly surround the enemy, rendering it irrelevant in the institutional decision-making process and begin the process of freeing the liberal arts from the prison in which the enemy has interred them for at least several decades.

The fourth rule of war is “Provide the necessary tools to wage battle.”

The tools that nucleus of faculty require include: a clear and articulate vision of where they’re headed; a sound strategy to guide their decision-making processes; encouragement as well as the freedom to make decisions; and, challenge to hold themselves and one another accountable for their successes and failures. Administrators and deans are perfectly positioned to provide all of this—to serve their warriors—while they battle on in the trenches. What those administrators and deans need to keep in mind:
• Success in this endeavor requires character not money…the exact opposite of what the enemy offers its warriors.
• Their clarion call is to serve the Church not to change the church…the exact opposite of the enemy’s clarion call.
• Prestige is measured in terms of conversions to the Truth not aversion from the Truth…the exact opposite of the enemy’s measure of prestige.

In sum:

“Rome wasn’t built in one day” and, it should be added, “Rome wasn’t destroyed in one day.” No, the barbarians knew their enemy, disbarment the enemy, and had a serious strategy that struck directly at the enemy’s heart.

As this observation concerns Catholic higher education, “Catholic higher education wasn’t destroyed in a day” and “Catholic higher education won’t be rebuilt in one day.” Academic administrators and deans who seek to reconstitution Catholic higher education must keep that in mind, as it constitutes their primary mission.

I’d commend the reader to consider carefully von Clausewitz’s “On War” inserting “Catholic higher education” where applicable:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1946/1946-h/1946-h.htm

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, HONORED GUESTS, Mail from priests | Tagged Catholic education, Ex corde Ecclesiae
25 Comments

Maltese Bp. Scicluna: The Church’s teachings on contraception has softened

Posted on 10 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 10 April:

A friend in Rome texted me that he had heard that Malta Today retracted the article about Scicluna. I went to look at found this. The story was still indexed, but you couldn’t reach it.

___

ORIGINALLY Published on: Apr 7, 2017

I provide this as motivation for your own deepening of prayer and mortifications for Holy Church and for the protection of sound bishops and priests.

From Malta Today:

Archbishop on contraception: ‘Only if within marriage and not abortive’

The Church’s teachings on contraception, though always tied to the tenet of sex belonging within the marriage, had softened in the past few years, as long as no life was lost in the process, Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna said on Thursday. [Is that so?]
In a recorded interview on Xtra on TVM, the archbishop told Saviour Balzan that he was not condoning contraception at large. [Oh no. Of course you aren’t.]
“One must remember that the Church always placed the argument in the context of marriage, and it holds on to the tenet of sex belonging within the marriage,” he said.
“What we are saying is that if you have to use a contraceptive, make sure it is not one that kills life.”

[…]

Scicluna is part of the “Maltese Fiasco”. He and the other bishop in Malta issued guidelines on chapter 8 of Amoris laetitia which, effectively, abolish the Magisterium of John Paul II. He is, apparently, now emboldened to go after Paul VI.

They never just come straight out and say it. They insinuate. People then hear what they want to hear and that becomes the new truth. Bit by bit they chip away at doctrine.

The combox is closed.

Posted in Liberals, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Pò sì jiù | Tagged abortifacients, Bp. Scicluna, contraception, creeping incrementalism, Malta
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Of public works

Posted on 10 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At Crux there is a story about the opening of a papal sponsored laundry available to the poor and homeless in Trastevere. At the end we read…

When a new McDonald’s opened a few months ago just a few yards from the entrance to Vatican City, many cardinals and Vatican officials who lived in the area complained. Soon after opening, and working with the Office of Papal Charities, the fast food restaurant started offering thousands of meals a week to the homeless who live in the area, which dampened the opposition.

Francis is the latest in a long line of popes to take an interest in Rome’s poor. The famous Trevi Fountain, for example, was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII to bring fresh water to the impoverished citizens of the city.

Urban VIII’s public works project to help the poor. Bringing Acqua Vergine to the people!

Here’s Er Fontanone on the Gianicolo, provided by Paul V. It hooked up to another fountain by the Tiber at the Ponte Sisto to provide Acqua Paola.

Sixtus V brought “happy water” to the folks of this area when it was severely run down. How he decorated Acqua Felice.

So… McDonald’s and a laundry. I’m all for the free market, and I’m not saying that a laundry isn’t useful, but … Crux… c’mon!

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged Trevi Fountain
6 Comments

ASK FATHER: Palm Sunday singing of Passion was long!

Posted on 10 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

I attend the extraordinary form of the Mass every 6-8 weeks. I’d attend more frequently, but my wife isn’t there yet. So I have a general appreciation for the usus antiquior.

That being said, at the Palm Sunday Mass I was struck by the reading of the Passion. The priest and two deacons chanted it. Slowly. In Latin of course. Facing north (toward a “choir” of altar servers). [No, they weren’t facing the servers except secondarily.] And it was inaudible to nearly everyone in the Church, so even if you could understand Latin (I can, enough), you couldn’t follow along because you couldn’t hear it. I read the Passion in my hand Missal, but the chanting was so slow that I had to wait another 20 minutes (NO exaggeration) for them to finish. [What’s your hurry?]

So, what’s the point? I’m usually all about the older forms, but this just seemed downright silly to me. [?] Any thoughts on how chanting the Passion inaudibly in Latin toward the wall for nearly half and hour is a good thing? Perhaps this is a case where the liturgical reform was an unqualified improvement?

There are several issues to address.

First, that the chant was “inaudible” is an aberration. Text is sung in sacred liturgy so that it can be more easily heard and so that the importance of the text can be underscored. If at your Mass they were singing very softly… well… maybe they are timid. That, however, isn’t the normal practice, as is the case at times with the Last Gospel. The Passion wasn’t supposed to be “inaudible”. Hence, there was either a flaw in their delivery or a flaw in your hearing… or maybe you were in an acoustical dead spot (churches have them).

It took an additional 20 minutes. So? I did a recording of all three parts of the Matthew Passion and it is posted on this blog. It clips right along and it takes about 30 minutes. So, what you heard is just about right. That’s how long it takes, more or less. The question to be asked is perhaps similar to the one Our Lord asked of His apostles in the garden, which you read yesterday: “What! Could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” On Palm Sunday we enter into the most important time of the Church’s liturgical year. It is fitting that we hear the whole Passion on Palm Sunday. Let’s not be in too much of a hurry.

The Passion was sung to the liturgical “north”, as you point out, which is a symbol of proclaiming the Gospel to the places where the light from the liturgical “east” has not yet penetrated.

“Silly”, you say? Many who experience the older, traditional form are conditioned by the Novus Ordo to have everything immediately apprehensible without effort, swift, paired down, unchallenging. They come to the traditional rites and they are conditioned to expect the same. Not only that, we are people of our age, in which we have little screens and time savers. Everything is NOW! NOW!! NOW!!!

“Unqualified improvement”? No. What you experienced was not as it should have been.

So, I reject the premises you offered.

There are hard elements of the older, traditional Rite which are necessary for establishing the grounds for an encounter with mystery. The kneeling for long periods, staying still, not being able to see or hear everything… these are necessary elements in worship of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans. When people chaff against these hard elements – understandable at first – their minds turn to distractions. In a way, a parallel is found in kids, who have a hard time staying still for more than about 5 seconds. That’s just the way they are. But they eventually stop being wiggleworms and grow up. Similarly, it takes some conditioning to shed distractions, to be still. That’s really hard for us, in this age of convenience and immediate satisfaction.

As a matter of fact, at our Masses we have a lot of children who can stand still for the whole Passion and not fidget.

That said, it is possible that those who celebrate the older forms have learned a few good elements for our ars celebrandi from the “days (decades) in the wilderness”. A greater awareness on the part of the sacred ministers that the are people out there is positive. I take that as an element of the mutual enrichment that would naturally take place between the two forms.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged Palm Sunday, Passion
27 Comments

From an American priest in Venezuela

Posted on 10 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Fr. Greg Schaffer, from my native place but serving in Venezuela, in my e-mail:

I am not sure if you remember me from St. Paul Seminary…we were there together for one I believe. I have enjoyed reading your blog over the years. To get to the point for the last 20 years I have been serving at the Archdiocesan mission of the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis in the Diocese of Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. My current responsibility is serving as the Diocesan Administrator of the Diocese of Ciudad Guayana until our Holy Father names our new bishop. The current political and economic situation in Venezuela is very difficult. The current Socialist government is very anti-Catholic. In the midst of many struggles, where many people including many priests and religious of the diocese are malnourished, we are trying to complete construction on our Cathedral. We are the only diocese in Venezuela without a Cathedral. Our Cathedral will be the FIRST Cathedral to be dedicated to St. John Paul II – it is located on the site of where he celebrated Mass January 29, 1985. I have contacted the Papal Foundation in the US and they directed me to contact the nuncio here in Venezuela which I will do to request funding from them.

With the help of a friend, I am making contact with the organization Kristan Noch in Poland (they are based in Germany) to ask for financial help with the construction. Do you know of any other Catholic Foundations that I might try contacting? I estimate it will take $300,000.00 to finish construction of the lower chapel which is the goal for this year. Once the lower chapel is completed we can start having daily Mass celebrated at the site which will be a huge blessing for the people and the project! There is a facebook page dedicated to the construction of the Cathedral – https://www.facebook.com/fundacioncatedral.deciudadguayana. Wikipedia also gives a brief history and description of the cathedral at https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Juan_Pablo_II_(Ciudad_Guayana).

Thank you for reading all of this. Thank you for your blog and for the great ministry that you are doing! May the Lord bless you and fill you with His Peace and many graces during this Holy Week and throughout this Holy Easter Season! Thank you for your prayers and for any suggestions you may have for me! Gratefully, Fr Gregory Schaffer

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Venezuela
6 Comments

Your Palm Sunday Sermon Notes (some photos)

Posted on 9 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I suppose that in some places it might not have been possible to preach for any length because of the extent of the rites. However, I also suppose that in some places Father (or His Excellency, His Grace, His Lordship, His Eminence) did, in fact, discourse.

Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of Sunday obligation? Let us know. [GOOD! This isn’t open for griping.]

For my part, I reminded people that we are our rites. Participating in these sacred mysteries makes them present to us, us to them. We must also remember that, while Holy Week has elements which surely make us sad, because they remind us that our sins crucified Our Lord, any every moment of agony was a victory. Every blow received, every thorn, harsh word or nail was and, liturgically, is a triumph.

Here are a few shots from our Palm Sunday:

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 |
32 Comments

ASK FATHER: Regular genuflections and… shoes

Posted on 8 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

All my previous shoes I used during the liturgy [?] died from the same plague. The sole of the right shoe is broken, presumably, due to regular genuflections. I guess the wisdom of the Church should be aware of this problem. Do you have any advice?

You are suggesting that genuflecting is not good for the sole?

My first inclination was to say, “Go to the Novus Ordo in a suburban parish: you won’t genuflect nearly as often.”

For that matter going to a beautiful Eastern Divine Liturgy would do that too. But you mentioned “liturgy” instead of Mass, so I don’t know what’s going on.

Yes, this is what happens. The shoe tend to wear faster because of genuflection. It can also be tough on certain areas of the pants, were the fabric get’s stressed.

Look, pal, I can’t help you with your shoes, okay? The only thing I can think of to suggest is, take good care of them. Keep them polished and treated so that the leather stays flexible.

That’s the way it is.

Why is it so?

Perhaps God hates shoes.

NO! Rather, God loves cobblers and shoemakers!

Should the Church be aware of this? By all means! You should write, immediately, to the Holy Father and tell him to channel the ghost of Bugnini and take all the genuflections out of Mass.

No. Wait. Don’t do that. Really.

As far as your sole, and your soul, is concerned, apply the best correctives.

Examine your sole and go to the cobbler.

Examine your soul and …

GO TO CONFESSION.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Lighter fare | Tagged shoes
26 Comments

Papal Preacher’s 5th Lent Sermon was about the Protestant Reformation

Posted on 8 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

FYI…

Via CWN:

Papal preacher devotes Lenten sermon to Protestant Reformation

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the Capuchin Franciscan friar who has served as preacher to the papal household since 1980, preached his final [5th] sermon of Lent 2017 to the Pope and members of the Roman Curia on April 7.

The topic of the sermon, delivered in the in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, was “‘the righteousness of God has been manifested’: the fifth centenary of the Protestant Reformation, an occasion of grace and reconciliation for the whole Church.”

The sermon had four sections:

The Origins of the Protestant Reformation

The Doctrine of Justification by Faith after Luther

Justification by Faith: A Doctrine of Paul or of Jesus?

How to Preach Justification by Faith Today

The combox is closed.