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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
Ben on 19th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum – Thoughts on how this might end.: “Tomasthetorque – the four horsemen of the apocalypse are saddling up, just very lazily and with less thunder and lightning.”
The Masked Chicken on 2nd Joyful Mystery: The Visitation (Traditional observance 2 July): “A very late reply: Dear Lurker 59, You wrote: “Rather, it is a true participation in the divine in the…”
Tito Edwards on Day 1 & 2 Conference for Priests: St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology: “Fr. Zed, I see you have excellent taste in pens! The Pilot G-2 is my personal favorite to write with.…”
mrs wu on My View For Awhile: Westward: “I grew up at Deep Creek Lake! For years, there was a wonderful holy priest in nearby Thomas WV. He’s…”
Dantesque on 19th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum – Thoughts on how this might end.: “Pope Leo has given it more than 15 minutes of consideration already, as at the very least he has met…”
WVC on 19th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum – Thoughts on how this might end.: “@nex001 At this point, “true liturgical reform” is the last initiative I want to see happen. It would, invariably, result…”
Rob83 on Day 1 & 2 Conference for Priests: St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology: “Hopefully they’ve got some of the smaller personal size of the study Bible Scott Hahn edited on the RSV-CE II…”
JesusFreak84 on SSPX “Out The Door”… literally on Sunday, at their chapels: “I went to an ICKSP Mass for the holiday weekend and they had printouts of the Vatican statements about the…”
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Recent Posts
- FOR PRIESTS: Wherein, prompted by this conference, Fr. Z posts something CONFESSION
- Day 1 & 2 Conference for Priests: St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
- 19th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum – Thoughts on how this might end.
- Daily Rome Shot 1655: inconsistencies
- My View For Awhile: Westward
- SSPX “Out The Door”… literally on Sunday, at their chapels
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 6th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 14th Ordinary) 2026
- Daily Rome Shot 1654: another jackass
- IMPORTANT expert canonical exam of the DDF SSPX Decree: It does NOT excommunicate SSPX priests or faithful who attend Masses, or change the practical canonical position of faithful seeking SSPX sacraments.
- WDTPRS – 14th Ordinary Sunday (Novus Ordo): from dust to freedom
- Card. Koch, Prefect for Christian Unity, makes observations about the SSPX
- WDTPRS – 6th Sunday after Pentecost: Collect – FIND THE CHIASM!
- My View For Awhile: Philly on the 4th
- ASK FATHER: Lay people, SSPX and excommunication
- Daily Rome Shot 1654: facade
- The Bishop of Salt Lake City reduces priests celebrating the TLM, despite conversions of Mormons
- 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
- ASK FATHER: Female heads of dicasteries
- 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
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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
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
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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: sacrament of penance
QUAERITUR: Can you confess in Latin?
From a reader: I know that the use of Latin is good for large international Masses (and for parish Masses, too…!), but what if, say, a priest and penitent didn’t speak the same language? Could a confession be made in … Read More
QUAERITUR: The Holy Spirit revealed to me that I’ve been an ass.
From a reader: I woke up this morning and had an epiphany from the Holy Spirit- I’m an ass. I don’t want to be one anymore, so I would like to confess this and amend my life ASAP. One problem. … Read More
QUAERITUR: Do I have to add details when I confess sins?
From a reader: In confessing a sin is it necessary to describe (giving some details of) the sin rather than merely indicating the name (species) of the sin? You don’t have to go into great detail, but you ought to … Read More
QUAERITUR: Confession – interpreters, eavesdroppers, secrecy and you
From a reader: Father, I spend a lot of time in Finland which has Europe’s smallest Catholic Church, [not to mention one of Europe’s oddest languages…] both in terms of absolute numbers and in terms of percentage of the population. … Read More
Pope Francis on the Sacrament of Penance
Pope Francis in Rio, spoke to young people at the Copacabana beach. Inter alia, dixit: Dear young people: “Put on Christ” in your lives. In these days, Christ awaits you in his word; listen carefully to him and your heart … Read More
QUAERITUR: Priest asked me to say Act of Contrition after getting out of the confessional
From a reader: During Confession, the parochial vicar at my parish insists that I say the Act of Contrition after absolution, when I have left the confessional. So I say it in the pew prior to doing my penance. I … Read More
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
QUAERITUR: Confessional etiquette
From a reader: When going to confession, if you know the priest is a Monsignor (name plate on confessional) would you begin, “Forgive me, Monsignor, for I have sinned,” or stay with the simple, “Forgive me, Father, for I have … Read More
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
Disasters, Death, and You
Terrible things happen to people through natural disasters or attacks or human error. We now see the images virtually in real time splashed on our screens. Misery, loss, pain come in the blink of an eye to people who, the … Read More





















