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About this blog…
“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
TheCavalierHatherly on The DDF’s procedures for “reconciling” both clerics and lay people from the SSPX: ““obligationem assumo sequendi lineam positivam ad doctrinam interpretandam sub ductu Magisterii ne quis eam a reliquo sacro doctrinae Ecclesiae patrimonio…”
Lurker 59 on The 6 SSPX Bishops excommunicated. Priests are in schism. Marriages invalid. Absolutions invalid. Lay faithful warned against schism and excommunication.: “Obedience that comes from servile fear isn’t the virtue of obedience. It is rather a form of vanity.”
Gregg the Obscure on What constitutes “formal adherence” to schism? It is NOT merely attending Masses. There’s more to it.: “the “formula of adherence” includes this requirement: “I accept the doctrine taught in No. 25 of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen…”
Fr. Kelly on The 6 SSPX Bishops excommunicated. Priests are in schism. Marriages invalid. Absolutions invalid. Lay faithful warned against schism and excommunication.: “@Fr. Jackson is right. And this is a point that matters to the possibility of reconciliation where it is needed.…”
Yubbly on What constitutes “formal adherence” to schism? It is NOT merely attending Masses. There’s more to it.: “So my reading of the whole situation is this: Leo/Fernandez intended, in the last proposed “dialogue,” to give the SSPX…”
R2D on What constitutes “formal adherence” to schism? It is NOT merely attending Masses. There’s more to it.: “The local bishop also has the authority to make LS excommunication the penalty for the lay faithful attending an SSPX…”
Archlaic on What constitutes “formal adherence” to schism? It is NOT merely attending Masses. There’s more to it.: “Not to worry… I hear that a certain bishop of a prominent see in the Southern U.S., well known for…”
knute on What constitutes “formal adherence” to schism? It is NOT merely attending Masses. There’s more to it.: “Father, what do you make of the language in the DDF’s Procedure for Reconciliation of Priests and Lay Faithful Coming…”
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Recent Posts
- The DDF’s procedures for “reconciling” both clerics and lay people from the SSPX
- Daily Rome Shot 1653: Pius X’s caption call
- What constitutes “formal adherence” to schism? It is NOT merely attending Masses. There’s more to it.
- 2nd Joyful Mystery: The Visitation (Traditional observance 2 July)
- The 6 SSPX Bishops excommunicated. Priests are in schism. Marriages invalid. Absolutions invalid. Lay faithful warned against schism and excommunication.
- SSPX Superior Fr. Pagliarani’s homily for the 1 July 2026 consecration of bishops
- A study in contrasts
- Leo wrote to the SSPX. The SSPX wrote back. Fr. Pagliarani’s response.
- Daily Rome Shot 1653: Procession with the chains of St. Paul
- Prayer for the SSPX and Leo
- ASK FATHER: Frequency of confession and confession of venial sins
- Leo XIV has written to the SSPX: “I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!”
- Daily Rome Shot 1652: tiara
- ASK FATHER: If God love us infinitely why does He not speak to us directly?
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 4th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 12th Ordinary) 2026
- Daily Rome Shot 1651: MAMBO!
- WDTPRS – Collect of the 13th Ordinary Sunday (Novus Ordo): the sticky goo of error and the freeing splendor of the truth. Wherein Fr. Z rants.
- WDTPRS: 5th Sunday after Pentecost – Snatched up into invisible love
- Daily Rome Shot 1650: shocked but not surprised
- I have to post these. I know you can find them on your own. But I must post them.
- Daily Rome Shot 1649: updates
- “Perdonamose!” St. John’s Birthday Feast and Midsummer Snails
- 23 June – Vigil of St. John – solstices and snails, bonfires and witch burnings
- 22 June in the VETUS AND NOVUS Ordo: St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More
- Daily Rome Shot 1648: contradictions
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 4th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 12th Ordinary)
- Daily Rome Shot 1648: Mass today is for my benefactors.
- Bad news and good news. The Bishop of Camden crushes the TLM. The FSSP will start up in the Diocese of Arlington
- Bishop of Owensboro crushes people who desire the Traditional Latin Mass, but it’s not his fault! It’s someone else’s fault!
- WDTPRS – The Collect for the 12th Ordinary Sunday (Novus Ordo): His Name and Holy Fear, Holy Consolation
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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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“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
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Fr John Zuhlsdorf
Tridentine Mass Society of Madison
733 Struck St.
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- “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: confessions
Different confessional practices/customs around the world
Under another entry concerning “confessional etiquette” a commentator raised the good point that people from different language/ethnic backgrounds have different formulae for beginning and ending their sacramental confessions. Most Americans of a certain age learned to begin “Bless me Father, … Read More
VERY COOL PRIEST with a SUPER COOL IDEA for HARD IDENTITY Catholicism
Yes, this one got me a little excited. In the past I have posted about a very cool priest, Fr. Richard Heilman, pastor of glorious Pine Bluff, WI. You may recall that he founded a group called the Knights of … Read More
61 Comments
Pope Francis heard confessions in a parish before Mass
On several occasions Pope Francis has spoken about the importance of the Sacrament of Penance. Remember: Our Lord Himself established the Sacrament of Penance. This is the ordinary means by which JESUS desires you to ask for forgiveness of sins. During … Read More
Again about validity of absolutions by SSPX priests
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
QUAERITUR: Face-to-face confession. Fr. Z rants.
From a reader: I am trying to figure out what was the rationale to change the rite of confession to allow for face-to-face confessions. I have read the documents of Vatican II, but did not see anything there specifically addressing … Read More
“Certain offices in human society require the officeholder to be loved and feared of men.”
Here is a little Patristiblogger offering for your midday consideration. This morning a priest friend and I were talking about the problems of leadership and being hated, loved, or feared. Classic question: Is it better to be loved or feared? … Read More
QUAERITUR: Confessions during Mass – revisited
From a reader: This past Saturday, I experienced several of the issues you have written about regarding going to confession. Seeing it was getting late in the afternoon, I attempted to go to confession at the parish nearest where I … Read More
A reader about a parish with confessions on Good Friday
From a reader: I had to tell you about what happened at our parish ___ this Good Friday. We had confessions on Good Friday for the first time that I can remember since coming here in the early 1990s. Not … Read More
QUAERITUR: Should I write to the bishop about urging priests to hear confessions?
From a reader: Would it be appropriate to write a bishop asking if diocesan priests under his leadership be encouraged to hear confessions more regularly? Most parishes seem to only have confessions on Saturday afternoons. I know our priests are busy, but … Read More
A reader’s story of an emergency room confession and advice to readers
From a reader: Yesterday (Friday) and I was rushed to the E.R. with a possible aortic dissection. It turned out that it was just muscle pain. I asked for a Catholic priest, and, to my great fortune, my regular parish … Read More





















