ZUHLIO RETURNS! “Cardinal Kasper Will Accompany Me”

Click Here to listen to the song

Link:

• ZUHLIO RETURNS! “Cardinal Kasper Will Accompany Me”

Could Pope Francis reconcile SSPX Tomorrow?

Update 11/21/16: Pope extends Jubilee mandate on abortion, SSPX confession

From Fr. John Zuhlsdorf:

I, as many others, have over the last couple weeks wondered whether or not Pope Francis would extend beyond the Year of Mercy the opportunity for penitents to seek out priests of the SSPX for sacramental confession and valid absolution.  There have been rumors – rumors – to that effect but nothing concrete.

That was an opportunity extended during the Year of Mercy.

The Year of Mercy is now over.

That opportunity for confession, as far as I know, is now over as well.

Hope springs eternal.

Today, however, I see a different of story, which is even better than the mere chance to go to confession (as great as that is).

Today I read at the German site Katholisches that Pope Francis may – may – regularize the SSPX in the structure of a Personal Prelature, similar to Opus Dei.  He may – may – do this on Monday.  That’s tomorrow... (continued)

Read More at Father Z's Blog

Link:

• Could Pope Francis reconcile SSPX TOMORROW, Monday after Year of Mercy’s closure?

Related:

• Pope extends Jubilee mandate on abortion, SSPX confession
• SSPX May be Recognized on Monday by Pope Francis
• Apostolic Letter "Misericordia et Misera" and the SSPX

When Mother Angelica EXPLODED!

From Fr. John Zuhlsdorf:



Link:

• FROM THE ARCHIVE: 1993 – When Mother Angelica EXPLODED!

Fr. Z: 8 December 2005: this blog began. Tonight, Mass for Benefactors.

By Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On 8 December 2005, I posted this photo.  This blog project began.

This was a shot – from my apartment window – of the Basilica and Apostolic Palace on the evening of the day that Pope Benedict was elected... (continued)

Read More at Father Z's Blog

Link:

• 8 December 2005: this blog began. Tonight, Mass for Benefactors.

Pope Francis wants a transformation of the papacy and a synodal Church

By Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Since the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Francis – or could we coin a new phrase? The “periphery of Pope Francis”? – I have been saying that his aim is to weaken the Roman Curia. HERE and HERE and HERE are examples.

Today Francis addressed members of the Synod, et al., on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops.

I think this speech (HERE) may be a turning point of some kind.  I don’t know what kind, yet.
Clearly, the Pope wants a more “Synodal Church”.  He says that this has been his intention from the beginning of his
pontificate… periphery. He said (my translations):

Fin dall’inizio del mio ministero come Vescovo di Roma ho inteso valorizzare il Sinodo, che costituisce una delle eredità più preziose dell’ultima assise conciliare.
…
From the beginning of my ministry as Bishop of Rome I intended to enhance the Synod, which constitutes one of the most precious legacies of the last conciliar assembly (i.e. Vatican II).

He goes on with comments about sensus fidei that I am going to have to parse with patience.   Including:...  (continued)

Read More at Father Z's Blog

Link:

• Pope Francis wants a transformation of the papacy and a synodal Church

Zuhlio Sings: 50 Ways to Rig a Synod

Click here to listen

Link:

• ZUHLIO RETURNS! “Fifty Ways To Rig A Synod”

Holy League

From Father Z:

There is a new initiative which you should know about.   My friend Fr. Richard Heilman is involved, as is His Eminence Raymond Leo Card. Burke.

HERE

For more information you can also text keyword EPIC to 84576 (I think that might be only for these USA).

Here is the video.

Links:

• Holy League (Fr. Z.)
• Holy League Web Site

From Bishop Tobin: Random Thoughts About the Synod on the Family

By Bishop Thomas J. Tobin

– It’s an enormous challenge to maintain pristine doctrinal purity while at the same time respond to the experiential, personal, and difficult needs of married couples and families. Behind every arcane discussion of gradualism and natural law there are parents and children awaiting God’s grace.

— In trying to accommodate the needs of the age, as Pope Francis suggests, the Church risks the danger of losing its courageous, counter-cultural, prophetic voice, a voice that the world needs to hear.

— The concept of having a representative body of the Church voting on doctrinal applications and pastoral solutions strikes me as being rather Protestant.

— In addressing contemporary issues of marriage and the family, the path forward will probably be found somewhere between the positions of Fr. Z and the National Catholic Reporter.

— Have we learned that it’s probably not a good idea to publish half-baked minutes of candid discussions about sensitive topics, especially when we know that the secular media will hijack the preliminary discussions for their own agendas?

— I wonder what the Second Vatican Council would have looked like and what it would have produced if the social media had existed at that time.

— Pope Francis encouraged fearless and candid discussion and transparency during the Synod. I wonder if the American Bishops will adopt the same protocol during their meeting next month in Baltimore.

— Wherever he serves, Cardinal Burke will be a principled, articulate and fearless spokesman for the teachings of the Church.

— Pope Francis is fond of “creating a mess.” Mission accomplished.

— Relax. God’s still in charge.

Link:

• From Bishop Tobin: Random Thoughts About the Synod on the Family 

Related:

• On the Fixation with Moderation
• Starting Tuesday Off Right: Face In The Dirt Beheading Edition

VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper

From Father Z:

His Eminence Raymond L. Burke gave an interview to Raymond Arroyo of EWTN.

You don’t want to miss this. Arroyo does not lob softballs. He starts out with a question about Pope Francis praise of Card. Kasper!

This is refreshing and it gets better and better as it goes along.

It is about, in part, the “Five Cardinals Book”.

Link:

• VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper

Related:

• Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
• Confused, Contradictory Chaos in Rome

LCWR wrap up - Fr. Z

By Father John Zuhlsdorf

“But Father! But Father!”, people have been asking me by email, “Why haven’t you been covering the antics of the LCWR?  Did you not see that they are defying the bishops?  The Vatican?”

Look, they are still meeting to figure out what they are going to do about their canonical status with the Holy See.

I did see this, however.  They empowered the new co-mentor, or whatever they they call her.  Here’s the photo...  (continued)

Read More at Father Z's Blog

Link:

• LCWR wrap up

Ordination Anniversary

By Father John Zuhlsdorf

Many priests observe the anniversary of their ordination at this time of year. It is a common time for ordinations, probably because Ember Days were common times for ordinations and Ember Days fall during the Pentecost Octave.

It is my anniversary of ordination today, 23 years ago, by now-Saint John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica.  I suppose that might make me a 2nd class relic.

It was not only the Feast of St. Philip Neri, but it was also Trinity Sunday. A beautiful sunny day...

Anecdote: After our ordination we lined up, new priests on one side of the side nave, all the cardinals and various prelates on the other. The Holy Father came and greeted us all.  To my shock, my boss, the late and great Augustine Card. Mayer who had joined the recessional, came across the nave and, in front of the Roman Pontiff, knelt down and asked for my blessing. It was one of several startling lessons Card. Mayer gave me.

Read More at Father Z's Blog

Link:

• Ordination Anniversary

Fr. Zuhlsdorf: An Open Letter to Most Rev. Michael Olson, Bishop of Fort Worth

By Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

(Fr. Z's Blog) I propose a possible way to diffuse some of the tension surrounding Fort Worth’s Bp. Olson and his banning of Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Missale Romanum at Fisher More College.

Years ago, when I worked at the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei“, we had an especially tense and even bitter round of correspondence with an American bishop who steadfastly denied to the faithful any use of the Traditional Latin Mass.  Hundreds of people signed petitions.  He wouldn’t budge. Finally, my boss, Card. Mayer told me that, at some point, we had to stop arguing and try to open hearts.  I round-filed the draft of a conclusive letter I had brought to him and wrote a new one. He signed it and I sent it.  A few weeks later we received news that, not only had His Excellency the Bishop granted regular celebrations of the TLM, he celebrated the first one himself.

It was a gesture of rare healing and true grace for many people.

I am reasonably sure that someone in Fort Worth is monitoring this blog for Bp. Olson.
Therefore, I ask:

Your Excellency,

Would you not go to celebrate a Traditional Latin Mass for the student body yourself?  If you object to some aspects of Fisher More College, could you not offer this Mass at the parish nearby, which Your Excellency mentioned in your letter to Mr. King, St. Mary of the Assumption?

This gesture would heal wounds that are opening up, allay fears, and give great solace to many people near and far, not the least the students of the College.  They are caught in the crossfire.

I humbly ask Your Excellency to consider this petition with an open, fatherly heart.

As a token of my best wishes, I promise during Lent a daily prayer, a Memorare, for you in the heavy mandate that has been entrusted to you as Bishop of Fort Worth.

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Link:

• An Open Letter to Most Rev. Michael Olson, Bishop of Fort Worth

Related:

• Fr. Z’s first reaction to Bp. Olson banning Extraordinary Form at Fort Worth’s Fisher More College
• More notes on Fisher-More and comments back on

Priests Attacked in Scotland

From Fr. Z:

From the Scottish Catholic Observer:

Priests under attack

By Ian Dunn and Martin Dunlop

An arson blaze and robberies show that Scotland’s priests are, once again, being targeted by opportunistic criminals. [Again?!?]

Priests in Scotland are increasingly living in fear after several crimes against clergy came to light this week.

A vindictive arson attack on Holy Cross parish in Glasgow saw two priests’ cars destroyed and severe damage caused to the parish house. There has also been a separate robbery at another Glasgow parish and a man in Perthshire was convicted for robbing an 80-year-old priest shortly after his golden jubilee. [Remember what happened to the guy who, thinking he was helping David, dared to kill Saul, the Lord's anointed?]
While none of these attacks are thought to be sectarian in nature, [hmmm] concerns are growing that priests, who often live alone in tied accommodation near parishes, are again being seen as ‘easy targets’ for opportunistic thieves and vandals.
[...]

There is more.

Let’s offer prayers for priests in Scotland.  May Mary, Queen of Priests, protect them.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful I live someplace where the means of defending myself and others around me are still available.

Link:

• Scotland: Priests Attacked

No priest is safe

"Someone who levels a false accusation, for the sake of money or to harm the Church, deserves to burn in Hell for eternity." - Father Zuhlsdorf

Link:

• No priest is safe - The Catholic League

Related:

• A Word to Biters of the Consecrated Hand
• Dignity of Priesthood

Why are SSPX Masses valid, but not marriages or absolutions?

By Father John Zuhlsdorf

(WDTPRS)  ....The priests of the SSPX are validly ordained.  They celebrate Mass illicitly but validly.  In normal situations they do not validly absolve, because they lack faculties to absolve (because faculties are necessary – in addition to valid ordination – to absolve validly).  They cannot act as proper witnesses to marriages, because they are not recognized as such by the Church.  A proper witness is require by the Church for the form of marriage.

How to sort this out?  Let’s try it this way.

Not all sacraments are juridic acts, and not all juridic acts are sacraments but, as in the classic Venn Diagram, some sacraments are juridic acts.

A juridic act (canons 124-128) is a human act by which a person, capable in law, observing the requisite formalities, manifests his intention to bring about a certain juridic effect.

For example, baptism is both a juridic act, and a sacrament. A juridic effect is intended (incorporation into the Church).  Formalities are observed. The person, capable in law, manifests his intention to baptize (he uses the proper matter and form). The Church, in her clemency and her desire that no one be denied baptism, extends jurisdiction to confer baptism to “any person who has the requisite intention” (can. 861§2). So, while bishops, priests, and deacons are the ordinary ministers of baptism, anyone – even an unbaptized person – is capable in law of baptizing validly.

Confirmation, Marriage, Penance, and Holy Orders are the other sacraments which are simultaneously juridic acts. Reception of these sacraments changes a person’s juridic status in the Church.  The Church is more restrictive about who can administer these four sacraments. Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion/Eucharist are not juridic acts. Reception of these sacraments does not change a person’s juridic status in the Church.

Absolution of sins after Confession is a juridic act. The priest, the confessor, acts in persona Christi and judges the penitent.  Remember that the confessional has the aspect of a tribunal.  The confessor/judge absolves and lifts the sin from the penitent.  Confessors also at times lift censures.  As a juridic act, it can only be done by someone capable in law. The Church has restricted this, not because the Church wants to make penance less available to people, but rather in order to ensure that the faithful are getting the best possible pastoral care and that they remain within the fold of the Church. Thus, the Church gives faculties, permission, jurisdiction, to act in this way, to use his priestly abilities in a performing a sacramental act which is also a juridical act.

With marriage, there’s an added wrinkle. The ministers of the sacrament of marriage are the parties who get married. The spouses are the ministers of the sacrament of matrimony. Therefore, for a valid marriage to be effected, they are required to be “capable in law”. For example, a couple of thirteen year-olds are not capable of marriage. Someone already married is not capable of marriage. Other capabilities are more relational.  For example, Sempronius may be capable of marriage, but he is not capable of marrying his sister, Caia.  Neither is Sempronius capable of marrying Titus). For Catholics, an additional burden must be met. For a Catholic to marry validly, he or she must marry before an authorized witness, usually a bishop, priest, or deacon.

The priest or deacon or bishop who officiates at a Catholic wedding is there, necessarily, as the Church’s official witness to ensure that the proper form is followed, etc.  The Church tightly restricts the ability of clergy to officiate at weddings. Priests who have the ordinary faculty, the jurisdiction, the permission from the Church, to witness marriages, are limited to doing so within the territory of the parish where they are the pastor, the parish priest. If they go outside their territory, they need the express permission of the pastor in whose territory they are witnessing a marriage. If they don’t have that permission, the marriage would be invalid because it would lack one of the essential requirements for marriage. The pastor of the parish (or the bishop, the vicar general, or an episcopal vicar with jurisdiction in the area) can delegate to another priest the jurisdiction, the faculty, to witness the marriage. He should do so in writing. If the delegation cannot be proven, the marriage might well be invalid!... (continued)

Click here to read more

Link:

• Why are SSPX Masses valid, but not marriages or absolutions?

Related:

• A Word to Biters of the Consecrated Hand

News on Sale: The New York Times Unloads The Boston Globe

In 1983, The New York Times acquired The Boston Globe for $1.1 billion. This month, the Times sold the Globe to Boston Red Sox owner, John Henry for $70 million.

By Father Gordon J. MacRae

(These Stone Walls) My friend, Michael, is 21 years old and will soon begin his third year in prison. Michael’s father is in prison in some other state, and he long ago lost all contact with his mother. He’s been helping me out with translating some of the social network lingo for which I’ve been pretty much clueless. “If you’re writing for the on-line world,” he says, “you’ll sound like a total dork if you don’t know the language.” Well, thanks Mike! I think!

Anyway, I just learned from Michael the meaning of “LOL,” and I’ve been looking for an excuse to use it in a sentence. Father John Zuhlsdorf made me LOL last month when he published a brief commentary about my post, “The International Criminal Court Has Dismissed SNAP’s Last Gasp.” Father Zuhlsdorf twice referred to it as a “somewhat longish post.” Clearly, he hasn’t been reading These Stone Walls.

I had to LOL because that post was actually about half the length of my usual TSW post. Because of where and how I must write, I can only manage one post per week compared with Father Z’s daily or even multiple daily posts. Since I get only one weekly shot at being heard and read, I try to provide something of substance (not that Father Z doesn’t). Like most “somewhat longish” magazine articles, I try to separate sections of my posts using subheadings so readers can get back to them over multiple days, if necessary. One reader wrote in a comment awhile back, “When I open a TSW post for the first time, I sometimes groan at its length, but then when I get to the end I don’t want to be at the end.” That is probably the nicest thing any writer could ever hear!... (continued)

Read More at These Stone Walls (click here)

Link:

• News on Sale: The New York Times Unloads The Boston Globe

Pope Francis Can Call the West Out of the Sandbox of Self-Absorption

By Fr. Gordon J. MacRae

(These Stone Walls)   ...The latter part of Father Z’s title, the “National Schismatic Reporter” is his newest nickname for NCR. There are other pseudonyms – some used with far less dignity – but my own name for NCR is the “National Catholic Distorter.” That one has fallen into disuse, however, because it retains the name, “Catholic” in the title, and undeservedly so. On February 27, the day before Benedict’s resignation took effect, NCR editor, Torn Fox offered up this little gem of reflection to his readers:

“With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow Rome time, his pontificate comes to an end, Roman curial heads resign, and the Vatican shuts down. We all become adults again, at least until we have a new ‘Holy Father.’ “

Note Tom Fox’s use of “scare quotes” framing the words, “Holy Father.” He utters that title with typical tongue-in-cheek fashion, with a wink and a nod to his “trapped-in-the-sixties” readers. The editorial was embarrassingly juvenile. It is a common trait of adolescents to believe that theirs is the only voice in the house worth hearing.

I have an NCR story of my own to tell. When I was a young priest in the early 1980s, NCR was seen as the coolest Catholic thing in print. Among many priests and Catholic leaders, it represented a voice on the left, growing ever further left as the Sixties moved on. NCR saw itself as representing the Church’s social justice arm while independent of any one bishop. By the time I was ordained in 1982, every priest I knew subscribed to NCR. A stack of copies appeared as the sole Catholic newspaper in many parish vestibules in the Northeast where I grew up (or didn’t grow up, depending on one’s point of view). NCR was vastly influential in the American Catholic priesthood. I recall reading back then that it had a subscriber base of 60,000 or more – unheard of for an American Catholic publication.

I first noted a problem with NCR when I found myself at or near the center of some important Catholic news stories. This happened three times in my priesthood, once in the early 1980s, once in the early 1990s, and once again in 2002 when the scandal in the Catholic priesthood was launched nationwide by The Boston Globe (may it rest in peace).

In all three instances, I found that the National Catholic Reporter was not so much reporting on these stories as shaping public perception of them. Many attempts to present another side of these stories were ignored by NCR, or flatly rebuffed, if the facts challenged the editorial positions of the paper. Over the last few decades, NCR has been shockingly one-sided, and offers no apology for that. From a journalistic standard, it presents no news at all, but is merely an extended opinion outlet for only one type of opinion on the Catholic far left. NCR is not at all worthy of its one good journalist, John Allen.

When I was unjustly sent to prison in 1994, two priest-friends thought they were doing me a favor by presenting me with gift subscriptions to NCR. The result was that I received two copies of each issue. I wrote to NCR from prison asking that the two subscriptions be collapsed into one and extended. Some unnamed person at NCR wrote back to me with a suggestion that I simply give my second issue to another Catholic prisoner.

The problem was that I could not find another Catholic prisoner willing to read it. NCR prides itself on what were then “leftist” issues such as prisoner rights. As I attempted to circulate a few copies, the comments I received from other prisoners were remarkable. I kept a short list of representative samples. This is what Catholic prisoners had to say about NCR:

“No thanks! Too negative. I have enough negative in my life.”
“Thanks, but no thanks. This is just nasty!”
“Wow! This is awful. Does the Church do ANYTHING right?” “What an ugly, nasty, negative paper!”
“UGH! Why did you give me this?”
“Why are they Catholic if they see nothing good in the Church?”

… and so on and so on. You get the point... (continued)

Read More at These Stone Walls

Link:

• Pope Francis Can Call the West Out of the Sandbox of Self-Absorption

Related:

• Fr. Gordon MacRae: Federal Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Habeas Corpus Appeal

Father Z: I am thinking about those red shoes

By Father John Zuhlsdorf

I am thinking about the infamous red shoes.  I am thinking about the non-wearing of the mozzetta.  I am thinking about the growing juxtaposition in some conversations of simple liturgy versus lofty liturgy.

Some people are saying, “O how wonderful it is to get rid of all the symbols of office and power and be humble like the poor.”

When I first learned to say the older form of the Mass of the Roman Rite, that is to say, when I first learned how to say Mass, because there has never been a single of day of my priesthood when I couldn’t say it, I admit that I was deeply uncomfortable with some of the gestures prescribed by the rubrics.  I even resisted them.  For example, the kissing of the objects to be given to the priest, and the priest and the kissing of the priest’s hands… that gave me the willies.

I resisted those solita oscula because I had fallen into the trap of thinking that they made me look too important.

The fact is that none of those gestures were about me at all.  They are about the priest insofar as he is alter Christus, not insofar as he is “John”.  For “John” all of that would be ridiculous.  For Father, alter Christus, saying Mass, it is barely enough.

When you see the deacon and subdeacon in the older form of Holy Mass holding, for example, the edges of the priest’s cope when they are in procession, or when you see them kissing the priest’s hand, or bowing to him, or waiting on him or deferring to him or – what in non-Catholic eyes appears to be something like adoration or emperor worship – you are actually seeing them preparing the priest for his sacrificial slaughter on the altar of Golgotha.

It is the most natural thing in the human experience to treat with loving reverence the sacrifice to be offered to God.  The sacrificial lambs were pampered and given the very best care, right up to the moment when the knife sliced their necks.

The Catholic priest is simultaneously the victim offered on the altar.  All the older, traditional ceremonies of the Roman Rite underscore this foundational dimension of the Mass. If we don’t see that relationship of priest, altar, and victim in every Holy Mass, then the way Mass has been celebrated has failed.  If we don’t look for that relationship, then we are not really Catholic.  Mass is Calvary... (continued)

Read More at What Does the Prayer Really Say?

Link:

• I am thinking about those red shoes.

Secret of the Black Smoke

From Father Z:

This comes from CNA.  My emphases and comments.

Vatican details how new smoke signals are produced

Vatican City, Mar 12, 2013 / 05:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Varying chemical compounds have replaced wet straw and pitch to produce the Vatican smoke signal that is used to communicate the result of conclave voting sessions.

Fr. Thomas Rosica, assistant to the Vatican press office director, explained that since 2005 the Vatican has used chemical compounds to better communicate the result of the conclave.

“For a Church that has made much progress in the area of modern communications, computer technology, Internet and Twitter, the conclave still relies on smoke signals to let the world know of its results,” he said in a March 11 statement to the press.

In the past, wet straw was used to create the white smoke, while pitch – a tar-like substance – was used to create black smoke.

Due to a number of “false alarms” in the past, Fr. Rosica explained, the Vatican has sought the help of “modern chemistry” to produce more easily distinguishable shades of smoke.  [Secret chemicals?  Read on!]

Now, the black smoke is produced by a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene, and sulphur, while the white smoke is made by burning a mixture of potassium chlorate, lactose, and rosin – a natural amber resin.  [HA!  A likely story.  Read on!]...
(continued)

Read More at What Does the Prayer Really Say?

Link:

• Wherein Fr. Z reveals super-double-top-secret inside-the-Conclave SECRETS from a mole!

From ChurchMilitant.TV:

"Look who we ran into at the Reagan National airport...Fr. Frank Pavone with Priests for Life and Fr. Z!!"