Audition Call

Pope Francis auditions liturgical dancers for the Easter Vigil Mass this spring.

This Explains the "Sign of Peace"

In a drastic move to secure traditionalist Catholics from liturgical hackers, the Burke administration on Thursday slapped a number of Protestant communities and individuals with sanctions over their alleged Vatican II hacks of the Mass.

“These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to Protestants, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm the sanctity of the Mass in violation of established universal norms of behavior,” Cardinal Raymond Burke said in a statement.

The move puts an end to decades of speculation over how liturgical traditionalists would respond to what it said was a widespread digital campaign orchestrated by liberal Vatican officials in an attempt to disrupt the holiness of the Mass. More recently, intelligence officials from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter have concluded that a number of high-ranking Vatican officials in the 1960’s were actually hoping to tilt the Mass in favor of Protestantism with its liturgical hacking.

Is It Hot In Here, Or Is This Purgatory?

I'm not sure why burning and fire are associated with purgatory, but....

Vatican City, Dec 31, 2016 / 03:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Nestled in Rome just outside the Vatican, a small unassuming museum dedicated to the souls in Purgatory displays simple items such as prayer books and clothing.

Nothing too unusual, until you realize that each allegedly show the marks of the deceased – such as inexplicably burned fingerprints – when they appeared to loved ones asking for prayers from Purgatory.

The Museum of the Souls in Purgatory is located inside of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Prati, near Castel Sant’Angelo, and contains around 15 of these testimonies and artifacts, collected from around Europe by a French priest Victor Jouët.

The Blessing of the Booze

From Father Z:

QUAERITUR:

You usually give your readership an annual reminder for the blessing of wine on St. John’s Day.

The Rituale says “Benedicere… hunc calicem vini et CUJUSLIBET POTUS”- so presumably any hard beverage could be blessed with that blessing? Whiskey would be acceptable right?

Right! Whiskey is “another beverage”.

I hope that you will get organized for this great day and wonderful blessing.  First, contact your priest and make sure he is one board.   To get him on board, it might be a good idea to to assure him that you will be leaving behind a goodly portion of the large quantity of the “other beverage” you want blessed:

“Hey Father!  I have a little too much Laguvulin 16 right now.  Could I leave some for you after you bless it?  I’d be much obliged.”

That sort of thing.

How did this blessing develop?   There was an attempt on the life of St. John the Evangelist by poisoning.  He blessed the cup and the poison crawled out in the form of a serpent.  You often see St. John depicted this way in art.

You can read the blessings at the link.

Merry Christmas! Rejoice!

Like these Columbian nuns!

The Eucharistic Communicators of the Heavenly Father are a community of nuns from Colombia who have a great passion for music and an intense desire to announce God through the gifts he has given them.

Sister María Victoria de Jesús told CNA the mission of their apostolate “is to evangelize through as many means of communication as possible,” and added that the charism of the sisters “is to communicate the love of God the Father.”

They have released a Spanish-language album Yo le Canto, or “I Sing”, as well as numerous music videos online.

Islamic Outreach, Part XCIV

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam.",

Meanwhile...

The Islamic State published the names and addresses of thousands of churches in the United States and called on its adherents to attack them during the holiday season, according to a message posted late-night Wednesday in the group’s “Secrets of Jihadis” social media group.

A user going by the name of “Abu Marya al-Iraqi” posted an Arabic-language message calling “for bloody celebrations in the Christian New Year” and announced the group’s plans to utilize its network of lone wolf attackers to “turn the Christian New Year into a bloody horror movie.”

Not To Put Too Fine A Point on It But ...We Are Doomed

La Stampa reports that the dried blood of San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) failed to liquefy in a ceremony in Naples, and that failure is being taken by some as a harbinger of bad news.

While Catholics are always urged to have faith and pray, and not dwell on “disasters and calamities”, the failure of the relic to liquefy on December 16 (the first failure on any devotional occasion since 1980) will cause consternation for some.

On that date in 1631, the lava from an eruption on Mount Vesuvius stopped just outside of the city of Naples, a circumstance that was credited to San Gennaro, that patron saint of Napoli. Since that event, the blood — contained in reliquary ampules — has liquified every year, with the exception of a few notable years where a failure to do so seems to have forecasted difficult times ahead.

• In 1939 and 1940, dates coinciding with the beginning of World War II and Italy’s entry into it, and in 1943, when the Nazi occupation began.
• In 1973, there was also no liquification, and Naples was hit with an epidemic of cholera. In 1980, Irpinia earthquake occurred.

Now And At The Hour of Our Death....Which I get to Decide

  

 From an article in June of 2015:

The Holy Year of Mercy announced by Pope Francis, which begins Dec. 8, comes at a time when the meaning of “mercy” in America is being twisted to mean something profoundly to the contrary. Specifically, there are some who are working hard to apply the concept of mercy to a growing movement to make assisted suicide legal.

There is a very interesting article in the NYT by Ross Douthat about Amoris Laetitia and how it afting the Church. Four Cardinals have issued a Dubai questioning some of the statements made by Pope Francis - specifically regarding receiving Communion and re-marriage. It's all about defining mercy, I guess. Here's where the controversy has led:

Indeed, the exact same post-“Amoris” pattern that we’ve seen on second marriages and the sacraments is playing out presently in Canada with assisted suicide. The bishops in the western provinces are taking the traditional line that Catholics who are planning their own suicides can’t be given last rites, because you can’t grant absolution to someone who intends to commit the gravest of sins shortly afterward … while the Catholic bishops of the Maritime provinces, citing Pope Francis’s innovations as a model, suggest that actually pastoral accompaniment could include giving last rites to people who are about to receive “medical assistance in dying,” because every case of assisted suicide is different and who are we to judge?

Now and at the Hour of Our Death. Amen. Go Army.

Washington D.C., Dec 15, 2016 / 03:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- You might have seen an Army chaplain devoutly praying the rosary on the sideline during Saturday's Army-Navy football game. Who was he and what was he praying for? 

“I always pray for both our teams, for no serious injury on either team. And I pray for the kids on both teams, and just for their holiness and their salvation,” Fr. Matthew Pawlikowski, chaplain of the United States Military Academy at West Point, told CNA. 

“And then I ask for Army's victory,” he added. 

While he has been the senior chaplain at West Point for two years – the first Catholic to hold the position – Fr. Pawlikowski has actually been serving as an active-duty Army chaplain since 2000.

“I love being a priest. And I love being a priest for soldiers. It is a great life. It's a manly life. It's satisfying,” he told CNA. 

Interestingly, the stock photo of the rosary in the article looks like a combat rosary. Not so much  crucifix, but the beads.

Cardinal Mañoso

Mexico City, Mexico, Dec 14, 2016 / 03:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City commended to Our Lady of Guadalupe the millions of migrants who have left behind their country for a better future in the U.S., asking her to help Americans welcome them – especially President-Elect Donald Trump.

Here are some exerpts from the "prayer":

We call upon you as the comforter of the afflicted, O Holy Mother of God, on this day of your blessed feast day, we have brought to you, as if it were an offering, the affliction of millions of your children who emigrated to the United States of America in search of bread for their families, of education to face the future, of the hospitality of those who also were one day strangers, and who knew how to form a great nation, diverse in its cultures.

Your children who emigrated, Merciful Mother, took with them the memory of their families and towns, but they also took you. And so, now there is no Catholic church in the United States that does not provide an inn as it were for your blessed image, because you are the patroness and empress of Mexico and of the entire continent.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I am pretty sure that our immigrant friends are not here due to an Emperor decreed census. But the Church does provide solice and a safe place...whiich explains the huge turnout at the Spanish language Mass.

Then the Cardinal veers into a personal attack on the President --elect:

O Merciful Mother! Move the hearts of Americans so they make room for those who, with their hard work have given prosperity to their country, and touch the hardened heart of the new President-Elect who being a Christian – as he has declared – so he cannot see the poor and the immigrants as enemies but rather as brothers with whom he must be tolerant, generous and just.

I like the "as he has declared"part. Who does that remind you of?

Noted Theologian Nancy Pelosi

 Anyway, he wraps it up with:

But our supplication, O Mother, comes full of affliction for our Mexico, your beloved Mexico, which is sinking in the swamp of corruption and poverty, is sick with violence and wounded by injustices. Move the hearts of the violent and sinners, protect families, preserve our Catholic faith, give those who govern us the vocation of service, satisfy our hunger and thirst for justice, because we are under your protection, Holy Mother of God, despise not the supplications that we make in our necessities, but rather deliver us from all danger, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin!

Well, Cardinal...Cura te ipsum. 

Today in Catholic History, December 14

From the Catholic Almanac:

James Blaine, James Blaine...The Continental Liar From the State of Maine

On the surface, nothing about the Blaine Amendment seemed patently anti-Catholic. Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on December 14, 1875, by Republican Congressman James G. Blaine, the proposed constitutional amendment prohibited public funds from going to schools affiliated with religious organizations.

The law passed the House, but failed in the Senate. However:

Nevertheless, after the amendment’s initial defeat, dozens of states succeeded in putting similarly worded amendments into their state constitutions. The U.S. Congress likewise mandated that all states admitted to the Union after 1876 needed to do the same. More than two-thirds of the states eventually passed laws implementing some version of the Blaine Amendment. Nearly all remain in force.

Baptism and Baptismal Records

I am in the process of digitizing the baptismal records for St. Joseph, and it led me to ponder a few things. For instance, what happens if the records are inaccurate? Not so much if a name is spelled incorrectly or a sponsor's name is inaccurate but rather, a record for a legitimate baptism does not exist?

Let's go the Rule Book!

Can. 845 §1 Because they imprint a character, the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and order cannot be repeated.

§2 If after diligent enquiry a prudent doubt remains as to whether the sacraments mentioned in §1 have been conferred at all, or conferred validly, they are to be conferred conditionally. 

Can the priest charge for his services?

Can. 848 For the administration of the sacraments the minister may not ask for anything beyond the offerings which are determined by the competent authority, and he must always ensure that the needy are not deprived of the help of the sacraments by reason of poverty. 

Does a baptismal name HAVE to be that of a saint in the Catholic Church?

Can. 855 Parents, sponsors and parish priests are to take care that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment. 

So it seems it's OK to name a child "Truth" or "Beauty", but not OK to name him "Lusty" or "Satan". I wonder if "Martin Luther" is alright? I think not.

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12

For the Monday evening Mass, a shrine was constructed in the sanctuary at St. Joseph Catholic Church.

"It's INDESCRIBABLY BEAUTIFUL!"

The Value of a Jesuit Educashun

Pope Francis has compared the media's interest in scandal to an unhealthy obsession with feces.

"The media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey ... to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things, even though they may be true," the pope said in an interview with Belgian magazine Tertio published Wednesday.

Coprophilia is a medical term used to describe arousal from excrement or feces.

It's the LAW

Canon Law Made Easy is a great site, but the author of the site does not allow copying her stuff. But this is interesting... especially in light of the recent addition the bulletin regarding cremations. The question is this: Can a non-practicing Catholic have a Catholic funeral and burial in a Catholic cemetery?

The answers is a resounding "YES". He has a RIGHT to it! UNLESS he had been doing really bad things while alive. Read the whole thing.