Free Republic

From the canonist Ed Peter’s fine blog In The Light Of The Law. He doesn’t have a combox over there and doesn’t mind if we use his stuff here. DO, however, go over there to his place regularly. Emphases are from Peters, comments mine: Misunderstanding the (alleged) 'Congo contraception' caseEven by the standards of his reign, the presser Pope Francis conducted on his return flight from Mexico has provoked an unusual number of questions. [No kidding. You should see my inbox, too!] I wish to address only one of those here.Preliminarily, I note that the burden is not on the...

Do you remember the scene in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited when Rex Mottram is being given his catechism lessons before he can marry Julia? The priest and Rex have this exchange: “Yesterday I asked [Mottram] whether Our Lord had more than one nature. He said: ‘Just as many as you say, Father.’ Then again I asked him: ‘Supposing the Pope looked up and saw a cloud and said ‘It’s going to rain’, would that be bound to happen?’ ‘Oh, yes, Father.’ ‘But supposing it didn’t?’ He thought a moment and said, “I suppose it would be sort of raining spiritually,...

Why everyone logs on to ‘Father Z’ He was once a long-haired Lutheran. But now, says Anna Arco, he is a legend in the conservative Catholic blogosphere29 February 2008 The legendary Fr Z Fr Z walks through the bitterly cold Oxford night with the firm, fast steps of a man who has relentless energy, determination and strong convictions. With his black trilby tilted at a raffish angle and his black scarf firmly tucked into his black coat, he looks like a character out The Matrix. With three mobile devices on him he certainly carries enough electronic kit to warrant the...

Sermon for 14 September at Blackfen (Fr. Zuhlsdorf)I was the homilist for the thanksgiving celebration at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Blackfen, where the great Fr. Finigan is parish priest. There was a very nice solemn Mass for 14 September when the provision of Summorum Pontificum went into effect.I set up my digital recorder to capture the sermon, but found afterward that there must have been a bad sector on the disk. I cannot recover the audio, alas, though I am trying what I know to try. There is still a program I can purchase to work on...

FATHER JOHN ZUHLSDORF’s blog has been the go-to point for people seeking insight into the Pope’s new document extending permission to say the Old Mass. Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum was released July 7, and its changes take effect Sept. 14. Father Zuhlsdorf worked as a collaborator for some years with the Vatican department charged with the pastoral care of those devoted to the older form of the Latin Mass, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. He was incardinated in Rome’s Suburbicarian Diocese of Velletri-Segni, and is pursuing a doctorate at the Patristic Institute “Augustinianum.” He spoke with Register...

A new draft of the ICEL translation is circulating and it is interesting to review it with an eye on those controversial bits. ... Truth is victorious again. Those who think we are all too stupid to understand Mass texts without them being dumbed down complained vigously about words and phrases that were tooo harrrd. None were harder than translating consubstantialis Patri in the Creed as "consubstantial with the Father". Here is the text in the new ICEL draft: I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in...