From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, a question – if a penitent is in a state of mortal sin, and they go to confess their sins to a priest, and the penitent does everything necessary on their part for the sacrament … Read More →
From a reader…. QUAERITUR: At my last Confession, during the absolution, the priest said: “I absolve you from your sins, in the name, etc.” Note that he did not say “from ALL your sins”. Does this mean the absolution is … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I have heard of “Apostolic Blessing” — is that the same thing but with a different name (eg: “reconciliation” == “confession” == “Sacrament of Penance”)? I’ve written about the IMPORTANT Apostolic Pardon quite a few times. … Read More →
UPDATE 28 March 2020: The CDW instructed the USCCB that mobile phones should not be used to amplify vocal exchanges between confessor and penitent, when the penitent is at least a little distant from, but still with, the priest. CNA … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I just read that Italy is taking the measure of locking down the entire country, 60 million people, until 3 April. I don’t know if this is irrational panic or not. Let’s say that it is. … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I saw a tweet about a question on confession. The person said the penance she got from the priest in confession was hard but she didn’t completely do it. She wanted to know if she was … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: You always [write] about going to confession and that’s great! But I read in a Catholic Herald article that in a speech about confession Pope Francis said that God ‘forgets’ our sins. How can that be? Is … Read More →
From a priest… QUAERITUR: I’m a priest who occasionally gets asked to hear confessions in a jail where the only way to speak to a person is through glass and a telephone headset. Without using the phone, one can barely hear the other … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: In line with your recent ASK FATHER postings on Confession, I have a question about vague penance given in Confession. We attend the local TLM and it is difficult to make it to Confession because the lines are always … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Whether an absolution is valid if the priest prays the form of the sacrament correctly, but does not make the sign of the cross. This might just be scruples, but recently, I went to confession to … Read More →
A correspondent sent the following, which I offer for your consideration: Our Lord speaking to St. Faustina in the Diary of Divine Mercy: “He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I’ve been searching through the Internet, and since I’ve found absolutely nothing regarding this matter, I’ve thought I might as well just send this question to you so that you can be the first (hopefully) to write about it. … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Reverend Father, If a priest in the confessional says “I give you the absolution in the name of the Father and the Song and the Holy Spirit” Is the absolution valid since he did not say … Read More →
From a reader… A priest from Diocese X and a lay person travel by train to some place. During the trip the latter feels the need to confess sacramentally. The train at that moment is in Diocese Y, where the priest has no … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: During my recent confession, the words the priest used to absolve me was: “I release you from your sins in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” Is it a big deal saying “release” … Read More →
Huge news. This was under embargo till noon, Rome time, which must be honored. [UPDATE: The Bollettino is now available HERE] The Year of Mercy begins 8 December 2015 until 20 November 2016. It is about to be announced that the Holy Father has sent … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: What does apostolic pardon mean? The Apostolic Pardon, or Benediction, forgives temporal punishment due to our sins, not the sins themselves. If anything remains from our lives, provided we die in the state of grace, for … Read More →
Fathers and seminarians, pay attention! From a reader… The Pope is sending out special priests who can absolve abortion. Does this mean that priests are giving absolution for something they cannot? Is the absolution then invalid? What does that mean for reception of … Read More →
From a reader… I went to confession! It had been 10 years. Your encouragement helped me get up the nerve to go. The hardest part was actually going to the church. I wrote down every single thing I wanted to … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: A blessed Holy Week to you! I just had a question about proper attire for confession. We hear a lot about attire for Mass, rightly so, but I’m wondering if we should dress up for other sacraments, like confession? … Read More →
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.