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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
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Recent Comments
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on ROME 26/10 – Day 30: With apologies to the Bard: “Tacens stat ursus. Turrim spectat clericus. Quis sapit magis?”
TheCavalierHatherly on ROME 26/10 – Day 30: With apologies to the Bard: “In platea stat Ursus, dum curiosus Clerum ignorat Pace Iaponia.”
Saint110676 on ASK FATHER: If a priest explains away a mortal sin, and the penitent believes him, is the absolution valid?: “Is confession the time to discuss the “theology of sin” or moral theology? Should we priests not simply give absolution…”
WVC on RIP Patrick Stewart … my competitor!: “For the Patrick Stewart Star Trek fans here – the famous episode “There Are FOUR Lights” seems very applicable to…”
hwriggles4 on RIP Patrick Stewart … my competitor!: “Fr. Z is saying a tribute to Capt. Picard: Make it so.”
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on ASK FATHER: If a priest explains away a mortal sin, and the penitent believes him, is the absolution valid?: “Please don’t try to come up with odder and rarer situations. We know that there were/are priests who tell/have told…”
mickeyfitz on ASK FATHER: Definition and the duties of a pastoral associate. : “TonyO: I suspect that the stability of a pastor’s appointment ultimately depends upon the good faith of the bishop and…”
mickeyfitz on ASK FATHER: If a priest explains away a mortal sin, and the penitent believes him, is the absolution valid?: “In the questioner’s scenario, could it also be possible that the penitent mistakenly believed that something was a sin, but…”
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Recent Posts
- ASK FATHER: If a priest explains away a mortal sin, and the penitent believes him, is the absolution valid?
- ROME 26/10 – Day 30: With apologies to the Bard
- RIP Patrick Stewart … my competitor!
- ROME 26/10 – Day 29: hard to read inscription
- ASK FATHER: Definition and the duties of a pastoral associate.
- ROME 26/10 – Day 28: Natalis Dies
- You knew this had to happen
- ROME 26/10– Day 27: Vigil
- Rush: on …what’s going on now
- ROME 26/10– Day 26: Rube Goldberg
- My Annual St Crispin’s Day roundup with Henry V speech!
- ROME 26/10– Day 25: King things
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Feast of Christ the King (N.O.: 30th Ordinary)
- Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage 2026… *sigh*… Vatican Bars Annual TLM Pilgrimage from ENTERING St. Peter’s Basilica
- ROMAE, die XXIII Octobris, A.D. MMXXVI
- 23 October – St. Severinus Boethius: “A man content to go to heaven alone will never go to heaven.”
- ROME 26/10– Day 22: Colors and courses and Coco
- ROME 26/10– Day 21: fountain
- 21 Oct – St Gaspar del Bufalo – “Hammer of Freemasons”
- From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-10-12 – Brainstorming!
- Not a huge fan, but the question is dead on right…
- ROME 26/10– Day 19-20:
- Are things as bad as the seem? Auctores scinduntur.
- ROME 26/10– Day 17-18: How very sad
- WDTPRS – 21st Sunday after Pentecost: My strengths support yours. My sins weaken us all.
- A matter of grave concern: People who pray together before or after Mass.
- ROME 26/10– Day 16: Baronius… and traitors
- ROME 26/10– Day 15: munch
- ASK FATHER: “Are the faithful who go to the SSPX being sacramentally forgiven in confession, or not?”
- 15 October (4 Oct 1582) St. Teresa of Avila, Calendars, Chess, and You
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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.”
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
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- 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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Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“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.”- Fulton Sheen
Therefore, ACTIVATE YOUR CONFIRMATION and get to work!
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Fr John Zuhlsdorf
Tridentine Mass Society of Madison
733 Struck St.
PO BOX 44603
Madison, WI 53744-4603
For email HERE
- “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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frz AT wdtprs DOT comAs 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
Let us pray…
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.
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Tag Archives: canon law
QUAERITUR: Priests, valid absolution of sins, and the faculty to receive sacrament confessions
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
Prof. Peters examines development in the case of denial of Communion to aggressive lesbian
The Canonical Defender, Prof. Ed Peters, who does not have an open combox on his fine blog In The Light of the Law, has opined about the case in the Archdiocese of Washington DC, now infamous, wherein a lesbian Buddhist … Read More
Things aren’t always what they seem to be at first glance.
We have probably all seen an email or blog post with some funny but wrong answers kids have offered on tests. One of the most famous is this: Recently was sent a few that I have not seen before, including … Read More
QUAERITUR: Pastor says he can waive requirement of regularizing marital situation.
From a reader: I am in the process of converting from the Anglican tradition to the Catholic Church. The priest of the church where I am taking RCIA has told me that he has the pastoral prerogative to waive the … Read More
Comments Off on QUAERITUR: Pastor says he can waive requirement of regularizing marital situation.
More canonical stuff on Archd. Detroit v Voris (Real Catholic TV)
The Canonical Defender, Prof Ed Peters, has more to say about Archd. Detroit v. Voris (and “Catholic”). He gets into a question I raised HERE. He doesn’t have a combox. Do visit his blog and spike his stats. A few … Read More
Dr. Peters about Michael Voris, RealCatholic TV and the Archd. of Detroit
Before going on… I wonder what this scenario means for the National catholic Reporter. ___ The Canonical Defender, Dr. Ed Peters doesn’t have a combox at his excellent canon law blog, In The Light of the Law. Background here and … Read More
QUAERITUR: Can a bishop forbid Mass in Latin?
From a reader: You recently had a post about Latin and the Novus Ordo with a reference to canon 928. You asserted that Mass can always be celebrated in Latin based on that canon. If one’s bishop makes it a … Read More
QUAERITUR: Am I forgiven if I don’t do a penance assigned in confession? Fr. Z rants.
From a reader: Good morning Father, when I went to Reconciliation this past weekend I received a two part penance– the first part was immediately carried out and the second part I was to perform later at home. [grrrrr] As … Read More
What do these words have in common: cathedraticum, dicastery, juridic, quinquennial, Referendary, Signatura, and vindicative
The Canonical Defender, Prof. Peters, at his excellent blog In The Light Of The Law, has this fun post: Taking Microsoft to canon law school This has never happened to me. I’m typing away on a canon law paper, just … Read More




















