A question pops up once in a while and I have dealt with it before. Can you be absolved over the phone or by internet? NO. That would be INVALID. I was alerted to this post at the site of … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I am struggling with food and alcohol addiction. After confessing this, my penance was to fast the next day after such indulgences. I was discouraged. My confessor did not know my circumstances. I have successfully done … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: At a local youth rally, the kids were told to confess one of their sin in the confessional. There were multiple priests present along with the bishop. Are their sins forgiven? First, if that recounting is … Read More →
What is it I have been shouting? From CNA: Pope: Be courageous, go to confession Vatican City, Feb 19, 2014 / 04:57 am (CNA).- During his Wednesday audience, Pope Francis encouraged the pilgrims filling St. Peter’s Square to receive the … Read More →
A priest reader sent me a link to an article on the site of The Remnant, which is I believe a bi-monthly newspaper staunchly on the traditional side of our Catholic spectrum. The article in question concerns the validity of … Read More →
From a reader in my email: Message: Dear Fr. Z, My sincere thanks and gratitude to you for your ministry. After a 16 year absence I returned to the Sacrament of Holy Confession for the first time this evening. After … Read More →
From a reader: While doing research I came across something that said that one of the faithful who knowingly receives a Sacrament from a priest without faculties commits a sin. I have always attended SSPX chapels and gone to confession … Read More →
As the USCCB meets, I offer this from G. K. Chesterton’s Autobiography (UK link HERE): When people ask me, or indeed anybody else, “Why did you join the Church of Rome?” the first essential answer, if it is partly an … Read More →
From a reader: I converted to the Catholic faith years ago from a Muslim background. My husband was also Muslim at the time. He is atheist/agnostic now and I don’t see him ever converting. A priest denied me absolution a … Read More →
From a reader: I went to Confession the other day before a Tridentine Mass, and the confessor said the prayers of absolution in Latin. I know this is permitted, but is it encouraged in the same way as Latin in … Read More →
From a reader: I went to confession at a neighboring parish that had recently received a 70-something priest who I know to be a bit free-wheeling as far as anything liturgical or doctrinal. This made me nervous going, but I … Read More →
I love the fact that we have a human dimension to Holy Church. We are a Church of flawed sinners, of weak people susceptible to the attacks and problems of the world the flesh and the devil. Our Lord gave … Read More →
From a reader: Father, I went to Confession this weekend and the confessor was a man with a very thick [FOREIGN] accent. On top of that, while pronouncing the absolution he seemed… a little out of it (that sounds like … Read More →
From a reader about something I raised HERE. In a recent post you wrote, “bishops and priests have Christ’s own power to forgive sins and they do so validly with the Church’s permission, indicated by a ‘faculty.’” Does this mean … Read More →
From a reader: I went to confession on Good Friday at my parish Church. I had a new Priest who I had never seen before, a Jesuit, [Oh dear.] young, [Oh dear oh dear.] from south Asia [Oh dear oh … Read More →
From a reader: This past Saturday afternoon, I went to confession (or, rather, I tried to go to confession). The good news is that the line was full of penitents. There were at least 25 people waiting in front of … Read More →
Every once in a while I get an email asking for the Act of Contrition in Latin. I am not sure why one would want to say her Act of Contrition in Latin. It seems to me that the Act … Read More →
It is Saturday during Lent. Please think about going to confession. You might consider offering to give a ride to someone who is shut-in or without transportation.
It is critical to our identity as Catholics to revive the use of the Sacrament of Penance. I think there are some moves in that direction on the part of younger priests, but we need also a grassroots effort of … Read More →
From a reader: Father, back in a “former life” I committed the grave sin of assisting a young lady I knew in grad school to commit an abortion. I regretted it from the start and within a year I had … 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
maternalView on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Why, if life was the result of random events, is there such order in everything that exists? And why, if…”
Gregg the Obscure on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Linguine Marinara con Gambieri tonight. In your charity please pray for me. it appears that i will likely be fired…”
SMJ on ROME 24/4– Day 30: Let there be LIGHT!: “Father, may I ask in which church is venerated the beautiful image of St. Joseph in the holy card that…”
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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I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
“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.
This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
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