Fr. Z's Blog

UPDATE: Some people reported trouble downloading this one.  I found what my have been the problem. Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 11, for Wednesday of the 2nd Week of Advent These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Today we pry into a famous hymn in the Roman liturgy for Advent. Some of the music used today: US HERE – UK HERE Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 10, for Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Advent These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today we have a taste of Peter Kwasniewski’s Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness: Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages US HERE – UK HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 09, for Monday of the 2nd Week of Advent These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today we have a taste of Peter Kwasniewski’s Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness: Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages US HERE – UK HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 08, for the 2nd Sunday of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today, cuts from the lovely CD from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, Angels and Saints at Ephesus.  US HERE – UK HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 07, for Saturday of the 1st Week of Advent, Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today, cuts from the lovely CD from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, Angels and Saints at Ephesus.  US HERE – UK HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 06, for Friday of the 1st Week of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Today we hear a short passage from… From Advent To Epiphany by Fr. Patrick Troadec – US HERE (English) – UK (French original) HERE   Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today I use a cut from On Youlis Night by the incomparable Anonymous 4 – US HERE – UK HERE. Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 05, for Thursday of the 1st Week of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Today we hear about the unity of Old Testament and New Testament priesthood in the person of John, who points to Christ Jesus.  Our commentator is Benedict XVI Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today I use a cut from the Easter CD of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.  They have a haunting, touching hymn about Mary, Queen of Priests.  It almost always tightens my throat a little.  Today especially so, in the wake of the burial of Bp. Morlino who did so much for priests.  US HERE – UK HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Here is ADVENTCAzT 04, for Wednesday of the 1st Week of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Today we hear a short passage from the great French priest named Lefebvre.  He talks about the Rosary. Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Some of the music used today: US HERE – UK HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Happily, I made a couple before my accident!  This one, however, I made after my accident, still in Paris, with alternative software and hardware. Here is ADVENTCAzT 03, for Tuesday of the 1st Week of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today we hear a short passage from the great French preacher Bossuet.  He talks about how the Enemy fell from heaven. Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Happily, I made a couple before my accident! Here is ADVENTCAzT 02, for Monday of the 1st Week of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Today we hear a short passage from… Hymns of the Roman Liturgy by Joseph Connelly – US HERE – UK HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Happily, I made a couple before my accident! Here is ADVENTCAzT 01, for the 1st Sunday of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Some of the music used today: US HERE – UK (sorry) Today we hear a short passage from… Divine Intimacy (TAN) – US HERE – UK HERE  – I really like, and use, the Baronius Press addition, beautiful book:  UK HERE  – for US it is hard to make a link, but try HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Once again this year I offer short daily podcasts to help you prepare for the upcoming feast as well as for your own, personal, meeting with the Lord. Happily, I made a couple before my accident! Here is ADVENTCAzT 00, for Saturday before the 1st Vespers of Advent. These 5 minute offerings are a token of gratitude for my benefactors who donate and send items from my wishlist.  Thank you! Have some Mystic Monk Coffee and have a listen! Some of the music used today: US HERE – UK HERE Today we hear a short passage from… From Advent To Epiphany by Fr. Patrick Troadec – US HERE (English) – UK (French original) HERE Chime in if you listened. PS: These podcasts should also be available through my iTunes feed, though maybe not immediately. Let me know how you are listening.  Through the plug in on this post? Through iTunes? Downloading?

Today is the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962.  At the opening, John XXIII (whose feast it is today) gave a famous speech which is known by its incipt, Gaudet Mater Ecclesia. John XXIII’s speech is imbued with a sense of hope and optimism. He described the situation of the Church in the modern world as he saw it. He spoke about how the Council was announced. He described in poetic terms what it felt like to be there in that moment, in the Vatican Basilica. The most important thing John said, however, was (my emphases): The manner in which sacred doctrine is spread, this having been established, it becomes clear how much is expected from the Council in regard to doctrine. That is, the Twenty-first Ecumenical Council, which will draw upon the effective and important wealth of juridical, liturgical, apostolic, and administrative experiences, wishes to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion, which throughout twenty centuries, notwithstanding difficulties and contrasts, has become the common patrimony of men. It is a patrimony not well received by all, but always a rich treasure available to men of good will. Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us, pursuing thus the path which the Church has followed for twenty centuries. […] … But from the renewed, serene, and tranquil adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness, as it still shines forth in the Acts of the Council of Trent and First Vatican Council, the Christian, Catholic, and apostolic spirit of the whole world expects a step forward toward a doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciousness in faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another. And it is the latter that must be taken into great consideration with patience if necessary, everything being measured in the forms and proportions of a magisterium which is predominantly pastoral in character. He goes on to speak about how in dealing with errors in the past, the Church had often issued severe condemnations.  Now, however, “the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.” Decide for yourselves how well that has worked. This comes to mind today, especially, because I saw a video in which the Archbishop of Chicago, presently in Rome for the Synod (“walking together”) made a video along with his theological advisor, Fr. Louis Cameli. .@CardinalBCupich and Father Louis Cameli of the Archdiocese of Chicago report from the #Synod2018 on Youth in Rome: https://t.co/83TKlHii7v pic.twitter.com/WNbZTcicYk — Archdiocese Chicago (@archchicago) October 9, 2018 “Cameli”, thought I.  The guy who uses Scripture in an odd way so as to undermine Christ’s words about marriage.  HERE A few years ago, Cameli published something in Jesuit run Amerika in which he quoted Gaudet Mater Ecclesia in such a way as to entirely distort what John XXIII said.  I wrote a post about that HERE.  Let’s see what he did (from that post).  He is writing against the Four Cardinals of the Five Dubia: Cameli pits St. John XXIII and his opening speech, “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia” at the Second Vatican Council against the Four Cardinals, whom he has already accused of being disingenuous. I don’t think we should allow St. John XXIII’s words and the Second Vatican Council to be so abused. Watch how the meaning of Gaudet Mater Ecclesia is completely changed by the cuts Cameli makes.  Read these side by side, taking note of the[...]

I received this Reflection on the Viganò Testimony by Bp. Schneider. I read it aloud to help those who can’t always sit still to read on screens have access to the bishop’s reflection. Reflection about the “Testimony” of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò from August 22, 2018 By Most Rev. Athanasius Schneider It is a rare and an extremely grave fact in Church History that a bishop accuses publicly and specifically a reigning Pope. In a recently published document (from August 22, 2018) Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò testifies, that since five years, Pope Francis had known two facts: that Cardinal Theodor McCarrick committed sex offenses against seminarians and against his subordinates, and that there are sanctions, which Pope Benedict XVI imposed on him. Furthermore, Archbishop Viganò confirmed his statement by a sacred oath invoking the name of God. There is, therefore, no reasonable and plausible cause to doubt the truth content of the document of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. Catholics all over the world, the simple faithful, the “little ones”, are deeply shocked and scandalized about recently disclosed grave cases in which Church authorities covered and protected clerics who committed sexual offenses against minors and against their own subordinates. Such an historical situation, which the Church is experiencing in our days, requires absolute transparency on all levels of Church’s hierarchy, and in first place evidently on behalf of the Pope. It is completely insufficient and unconvincing, that Church authorities continue to formulate general appeals for a zero tolerance in the cases of clerical sexual abuses and for a stop of covering such cases. Equally insufficient are the stereotyped pleas for forgiveness on behalf of Church authorities. Such appeals for zero tolerance and pleas for forgiveness will become credible only if the authorities of the Roman Curia will lay the cards on the table, giving the names and surnames of all those in the Roman Curia – independent of their rank and title –  who covered the cases of sexual abuse of minors and of subordinates. From the document of Archbishop Viganò one can draw the following conclusions: (1) That the Holy See and the Pope himself will start to cleanse uncompromisingly the Roman Curia and the episcopate from homosexual cliques and networks. (2) That the Pope will proclaim unambiguously the Divine doctrine about the grievously sinful character of homosexual acts. (3) That there will be issued peremptory and detailed norms, which will prevent the ordination of men with a homosexual tendency. (4) That the Pope restores the purity and unambiguity of the entire Catholic doctrine in teaching and preaching. (5) That there will be restored in the Church through papal and episcopal teaching and through practical norms the ever valid Christian ascesis: the exercises of fasting, of corporal penitence, of abnegations. (6) That there will be restored in the Church the spirit and the praxis of reparation and expiation for sins committed. (7) That there will start in the Church a securely guaranteed selection process of candidates to the episcopacy, who are demonstrably true men of God; and that it would be better to leave the dioceses several years without a bishop rather than to appoint a candidate who is not a true man of God in prayer, in doctrine and in moral life. (8) That there will start in the Church a movement especially among cardinals, bishops and priests to renounce any compromise and any flirt with the world. One would not be surprised, when the mainstream oligarchical international media, which promote homosexuality and moral depravity, will start to denigrate the person of Archbishop Viganò and to let disappear the core issue of his document in the sand. In midst of the spreading of Luther’s heresy and the deep moral crisis of a considerable part of the clergy and especially of the Roman Curia, Pope Adrian VI wrote the following astonishingly frank wor[...]

Ed Pentin of the National Catholic Register, the best and most reliable working Vaticanista, has received and released an 11-page testimony from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Nuncio to these USA.  Viganò reveals a great deal about who knew what about The Present Crisis, and what they did or didn’t do with that information. The report is shocking.  The report left me deeply saddened.  The report is going to be extreme medicine for what ails the Body of Christ, the Church.   As Augustine reported, “the doctor doesn’t stop cutting just because the patient is screaming for him to stop”. I read the whole report, which is available online.  Pentin’s article is HERE.  The testimony HERE.  It was translated by Diane Montagna of LifeSite. Viganò is absolutely reliable. Quotes: I had always believed and hoped that the hierarchy of the Church could find within itself the spiritual resources and strength to tell the whole truth, to amend and to renew itself. That is why, even though I had repeatedly been asked to do so, I always avoided making statements to the media, even when it would have been my right to do so, in order to defend myself against the calumnies published about me, even by high-ranking prelates of the Roman Curia. But now that the corruption has reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy, my conscience dictates that I reveal those truths…. … Pope Benedict had imposed on Cardinal McCarrick sanctions similar to those now imposed on him by Pope Francis: the Cardinal was to leave the seminary where he was living, he was forbidden to celebrate [Mass] in public, to participate in public meetings, to give lectures, to travel, with the obligation of dedicating himself to a life of prayer and penance. … Cardinal Wuerl, well aware of the continuous abuses committed by Cardinal McCarrick and the sanctions imposed on him by Pope Benedict, transgressing the Pope’s order, also allowed him to reside at a seminary in Washington D.C. In doing so, he put other seminarians at risk. … The appointments of Blase Cupich to Chicago and Joseph W. Tobin to Newark were orchestrated by McCarrick, Maradiaga and Wuerl, united by a wicked pact of abuses by the first, and at least of coverup of abuses by the other two. Their names were not among those presented by the Nunciature for Chicago and Newark. … Pope Francis has repeatedly asked for total transparency in the Church and for bishops and faithful to act with parrhesia. The faithful throughout the world also demand this of him in an exemplary manner. He must honestly state when he first learned about the crimes committed by McCarrick, who abused his authority with seminarians and priests. In any case, the Pope learned about it from me on June 23, 2013 and continued to cover for him. He did not take into account the sanctions that Pope Benedict had imposed on him and made him his trusted counselor along with Maradiaga. … Now in the United States a chorus of voices is rising especially from the lay faithful, and has recently been joined by several bishops and priests, asking that all those who, by their silence, covered up McCarrick’s criminal behavior, or who used him to advance their career or promote their intentions, ambitions and power in the Church, should resign. … In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church, he must acknowledge his mistakes and, in keeping with the proclaimed principle of zero tolerance, Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them. I fully expect that the Devil will lash out viciously, through his human agents, at anyone involved in this, including of course Viganò, Petin, the translator Diane Montagna… me for reading it aloud and anyone else who refers to it.   The Devil, the Enemy, is surely grafted onto the homosexual network and is surely, if not possessing [...]