How are American priests doing?

Posted on 3 April 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At The Catholic Thing there is a fascinating read about the “status quaestionis” of priests in these USA.

“Stronger Families; Stronger Priests”

Here’s the opening.

In 2022, The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America – where I serve as director – conducted the largest study of American Catholic priests in more than half a century. This National Study of Catholic Priests (NSCP) looked at many aspects of how American priests are faring.

I have my own perspective on this.

Here’s the conclusion.

Before all, the formation of young Christian men is the responsibility of mothers and fathers. Fathers in a particular way. Parents, consider: Your son (or mine) may be someone’s husband someday. (I mention this as the father of three daughters.) Or he may be someone’s confessor. He may even be someone’s bishop. To paraphrase John Paul II, as the family goes, so goes the Church, the nation, and the world.

Posted in Cancelled Priests, Priests and Priesthood |
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Daily Rome Shot 1286 – notable items

Posted on 2 April 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Two notable items in this…

I would very much like a relic of Miguel Pro

In chessy news… HERE

White to move and mate in 2.  No. REALLY.  Mate in 2.  Can you get this in under a minute?  It took me two.  Then I saw that I had it wrong.  Two more.  Got it.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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20 years ago today, 2 April 2005, the death of Pope St. John Paul II

Posted on 2 April 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Can it be 20 years? I miss him.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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“All these teachings, then, are bound up in one body.” Check out this article by Anthony Esolen

Posted on 2 April 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is a very good piece at The Catholic Thing by Anthony Esolen. Here is how it starts.

This is my geopolitical fiction,” Jesus did not say, when He broke the bread at the Last Supper. “The group, though it has many members, is still one group,” Paul did not say, when he sought, gently, to lead the fractious democracy-leaning Corinthians back to their responsibilities toward one another and their submission to the truth. “Every man is an island,” John Donne did not say in his meditations on death, so that if you hear the church bells ringing, he did not continue, “you need not ask for whom they toll, so long as they do not toll for thee.”

It is almost impossible, in our time of social alienation, family breakdown, self-imposed detachment, radical sexual individualism, and loneliness, to ask people to consider what a society is; a prerequisite, one might think, for considering the social teachings of the Church, or the social good or harm to be expected from a proposed policy.

Esolen has had to have meditated at length over “society”. I suspect this because he translated The Divine Comedy by Dante. In Inferno, the sins and their punishments reflect how they broke the bonds of society. That’s a key to understanding what Dante was doing. The Divine Comedy is also a socio-political treatise.

Here’s how his piece ends. It’s a staggeringly profound and yet smoothly simple observation. HOWEVER, if someone gets this wrong and starts to “jenga” pull this or that from the whole, the result is disaster.

All these teachings, then, are bound up in one body. They are alive, mutually reinforcing, coherent, dynamic. To suppose that they are separable is to treat the body as a corpse. Nor is there society in the tomb.

BTW… a couple of Cardinals, some aging feminists, and a bunch Jesuits are going to hate this article. So, share it around.

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged
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Daily Rome Shot 1285

Posted on 1 April 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

HEY!

sm****41@nc.rr.com
a*****f900@charter.net

My thank you notes to you were kicked back as undeliverable. New email? Let me know HERE

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

There’s this. BTW… this is NOT the easiest dish to prepare.

And…

In chessy news…

Arjun Erigaisi has surpassed at #4 Fabiano Caruana now #5 in the FIDE ratings.  Magnus (2837) is still #1 and Hikaru (2804) #2 and Gukesh #3 (official champ).

White’s move. Mate in 2.  CRAZY!  Can you find it in 1 minute?  2?  3?

Get great beer and help traditional monks at the same time.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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The fool says in his heart ‘There is no God.'”

Posted on 1 April 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From something I spotted in a tweet, I did some digging to find the source. This is from a Psalter in the Getty Museum.

DESCRIPTION: An enthroned man wearing a fool’s cap illustrates the opening verse of Psalm 52-“The fool says in his heart ‘There is no God.'” The scroll he holds proclaims this heresy: Non e[st] Deu[s] (There is no God). Two mischievous demons incite him to this thought, while an angel above attempts to warn the fool against such a notion.

Closer… right click for really big…

Posted in Just Too Cool |
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Daily Rome Shot 1284

Posted on 31 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the background you can see part of the facade and dome of S. Carlo e Biaggio, which has been closed for years after the big earthquake that it Norcia. I’m told it is to reopen soon. Last time I was there in February, the park was being massively cleaned up.

Very cool…

 

Memento Mori…

Chessy news… I’ll probably play OTB today.  HERE

In today’s hard puzzle, white to move and mate in 5.  Good luck.

Nice people! Great service!

Every home should have a chess set.  Every kid should learn to play.  It is a lifetime gift that cuts across people and generations.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

Some time ago, I bought a great travel set from Chess House (with which I have an affiliate program).  It is simply the best travel set I’ve seen.  It weighs hardly anything.  The pieces are magnetic.  The board has a pleasant leather backing.  It packages up into a little bag.  It looks nice.  15% discount TODAY

9? Milled Leather Travel Magnetic Chess Set with Wood Pieces

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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31 March – Feast of St. Amos, Old Testament Prophet

Posted on 31 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today in the older Roman Martyrology it is the Feast of the Old Testament Prophet Amos.

Many of the Old Testament figures are considered saints and they have feast days, quite a few in Advent (for obvious reasons) but also at other times of the year, scattered around.

In honor of SAINT Amos the Old Testament Prophet, we can look at something that St. Augustine of Hippo penned, commenting on Amos 3:1-8 and 4:11-12.  The chosen people have been unfaithful and God will punish them.  Amos poses rhetorical questions about their behavior and God’s response.

Amos says:

Does a lion roar in the forest,
when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his den,
if he has taken nothing?

…

The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?”

…

Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

Augustine expands on Amos’s lion (s. 55.3):

”Lord, You have been our refuge.”  Therefore we have recourse to You.  Our healing shall be from You, for our evil is from ourselves.  Because we have abandoned You, You have abandoned us to ourselves.  May we therefore be found in You, for in ourselves we had been lost.  “Lord, You have been our refuge.”  Why, my brethren, should we doubt that the Lord will make us gentle if we submit ourselves to be tamed by him?  You have tamed the lion, which you did not create.   Will your Creator be unable to tame you?  What is the source of your power to tame such savage beasts?  Are you their equal in bodily strength?  By what power then have you been able to tame such huge beasts?  The so-called beasts of burden are wild by nature, for it untamed they could not be endured.  But because you are not accustomed to see them except when handled by men and under the curb and control of men, you might think that they were born tame.  At any rate, consider the savage beasts.  The lion roars; who does not fear?  And yet, whence your knowledge of the fact that you are more powerful?  Not in bodily strength but in the inner reason of your mind.  You are more powerful than a lion, because you have been made the image of God.  The image of God tames a wild beast.  Is God unable to tame His own image?

A good point of reflection for Lent.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Patristiblogging, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged
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Daily Rome Shot 1283 – Laetare at The Parish™

Posted on 30 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Parish™, where I will soon be once again thanks to you wonderful Roman Donors.  This is today, as you can see from the rose vestments on the altar and tabernacle.

It seems that don Vilmar had the sermon today. Pics from the World’s Best Sacristan™.

The Benedictines of Gower Abbey recorded the responsories for Tenebrae.

Tenebrae at Ephesus

US HERE – UK HERE

These are the RESPONSORIES of Tenebrae for all three days of the Triduum.  They are, arguably, the most beautiful chants of the entire liturgical year.  Order now and have this in time.  A good gift.

It’s always something.

1000% agreement.

Par for the course these days… let’s celebrate heretics who did immeasurable harm to souls.

Quid novi scaccorum ….  QUI

Motus ad lusorem cum militibus albis pertinent. Scaccus mattus, scilicet mors regis, quattuor in motis veniat.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
2 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 4th Sunday of Lent – Laetare – 2025

Posted on 30 March 2025 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

It is the 4th Sunday of Lent in the Novus Ordo and in the Vetus Ordo.   It is nicknamed “Laetare Sunday”.   In England of yore, people went “mothering”. It was also called “Mid-Lent” Sunday (because Lent once started later).

Surprisingly, the experts of the Consilium didn’t do away with Lent completely.  How backwardist.

The Roman Station is Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

QUESTION: At the Mass you went to, was the Station mentioned?  Let us know in the combox.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Sunday Mass of obligation?

Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

I have a few thoughts about the orations in the Vetus Ordo for this Sunday: HERE

A taste:

In the ancient Church of Rome, we Catholics didn’t begin the most serious period of penitential fasting until this midway point before Easter.  Originally, the Lenten period began with Quadragesima or “Fortieth”, also the Latin name now for Lent.  The days from Ash Wednesday through Saturday were added later to take into account the Triduum, etc.  Hence, we are about 20 days into ancient Lent which is why this 4th Sunday was called “Dominica in vigesima … Sunday on the twentieth” and also “caput ieiunii … the start of the fast”.  At this mid-point, there was a brief pause for us to catch our breath, as it were, like Jewish pilgrims needed on the way up the long sloping climb to Jerusalem.  In fact, the Collect for Mass has the very word “respiremus … may we catch our breath, be refreshed”.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged
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