ROME 26/5– Day 45: Fr. Z gives you the bird

Posted on 8 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

5:55 20:19
20:30

Today one recites the Supplica to Our Lady of Pompeii

It is the 1st Anniversary of the election of Leo XIV.

Two 7th century Popes have their Feast today, Boniface IV (+615) and Benedict II (+685)

A couple of amusing things and something not so amusing.

I have to scratch my head at this and look around to see if Malachi Martin is standing behind me.  See anything strange?

You all know that in January we celebrate the Feast of the Ass.  Today, apparently, is World Donkey Day.  Really.  So many celebrations at once!

Oh yes… a friend sent this screenshot.  It seems someone thinks that Mary is “Mediatrix”.

Well, maybe news hasn’t reached them yet.  Donkeys are kinda slow.

Today on my way to church I ran into the lady with the cockatoo. When I had my place across from the English College and above the infamous Bar Peru, each day I could hear when they came by for a constitutional. Today, we met in front of S.M. Monserrato.

She was not gesturing because she didn’t want photos.  She was quite engaged and friendly.

So, there. Now you have the bird.

Black to move. What to do?

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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8 May – Happy Feast of Mary… under which title?

Posted on 8 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today I had options for Mass….

Apparition of St. Michael

Mary, Queen of All Saints and Mother of Beautiful Love

Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces.

Guess which one I choose.

Let me help.

Posted in Our Solitary Boast, SESSIUNCULA |
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8 May – Indulgence for the Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii (twice a year)

Posted on 8 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is the 8 May and we recite the Supplica to Our Lady of Pompeii

It is often recited at 1200 Noon.

Once upon a time one could obtain this day a plenary indulgence by reciting the Supplication to the Madonna of Pompei.  The other day for this is the first Sunday of October.

Bl. Bartolo Longo, who fostered this devotion was dedicated also to St. Michael the Archangel.  For this reason he wanted the Supplica to be said on the Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael which occurred in 490.   The place, Mt. Gargano, is one of the points that can be drawn through Michael shrines from Ireland to the Holy Land, St. Michael’s Sword, firmly fixed also with Mary’s Supplica.

With the changes to the concessions for indulgences, according to the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, there is no longer any plenary indulgence for this prayer, notwithstanding anything you might see in some old book or on a website.  For example, if you see something about Pope Leo XIII granting an indulgence, etc., that is null and void now.

However, the new Enchiridion says with concession #17, §3 that Marian prayers obtain a partial indulgence under the condition that the prayer is approved by competent authority and that it is recited with fervor in the state of grace (you don’t need confession and Communion within 20 days, nor must you recite the prayers for the Roman Pontiffs intentions for a partial indulgence). You can receive a partial indulgence, by maintaining this beautiful custom of the Supplication today. 

For more about this, including the prayers, click HERE.  

I included background on Bl. Bartolo Longo, a converted Satanic priest! John Paul II beatified Bartolo Longo in 1980.  Some of his writings form the basis of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.

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ROME 26/5– Day 44: I didn’t expect roses.

Posted on 7 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Aloft, into the Roman sky did the sun battle with the clouds for dominance. It was 05:58.

The battle, warmly waged was by the sun achieved until the airy field was surrendered at 2017.

The Ave Maria Bell… still in the 20:30 cycle.

It is the feast St. Flavia Domitila.

Welcome Registrants:

Garrett Hughes
michele.agnoletti

I received a note from the makers of the Six Hour Clock app, who have added features. He is now including certain aspects of the calculations of the Moon.

THAT drove me with terror renewed to review the calculations of ecclesiastical lunar things, involving epachts, golden numbers, special letters… the Church maintains these archaic and arcane “computus” even in the modern, post-Conciliar liturgical books though I doubt that 1 in 1 million pay attention to them. I did some scary reading to review. OOOmmmphff. Maybe I will write something about them.

Today I went to get more alstroemeria today from Pippo, but he decided that what he had wasn’t good enough so he wouldn’t sell it. But he was involved with making new floral arrangements for the Marian altar at The Parish™.

This guy is amazing.  Note the use the quercia.  I didn’t expect roses.

I made a hamburger tonight.  Wow, right?

I’m listening to the last audible book of the series about Quintus Sertorius by Vincent B. Davis.

I did my Hungarian lesson and reviewed exercises in the Queen’s Gambit Accepted – an unusual e5 line.   Alas, I didn’t get any work done on the novel, but I am determined to kill a Franciscan in the Via dei Pettinari (but I haven’t figured that out yet).

I renewed my apartment contract.   Sure, you can send donations!

May I please wrap this up?

My guy Wesley is .5 out of first in Warsaw.  Magnus won in Malmo.

Black mates in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Help monks.

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REVIEW: New biography of the late and truly great Michael Davies

Posted on 7 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am reading Michael Davies: The Great Defender of Catholic Tradition by Leo Darroch.

US HERE – UK HERE

I’m annoyed because I have a lot of chores to do … laundry, some mending, make lunch, clean the kitchen … but I don’t want to stop reading.

Michael Davies was and still is someone to whom anyone who desires to celebrate or assist at the Traditional Roman Rite owes a deep debt of gratitude, at least, and prayers for the repose of his soul. He died in 2004.

I knew his writings fairly well but only met him in person a few times, when he would come to Rome while I was in the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”. He was a even on those brief terms a real gentleman of deep conviction. Once over lunch I had a little argument with him about something he had written that needed correction. He fiercely defended his choice. I had to make the point iron clad and, after a while, he accepted it. I don’t even remember what the point was after all these years, but I remember his razor mind, his determination, and, in the end, his willingness to be convinced if the argument was good enough. That’s rare.

This book – I’m several chapters in – flows, it is easy to read. It is jammed with interesting history. If Michael was from or in or at a place, the author includes some history about it relevant to Davies’ involvement.

Michael Davies deserves to be remembered. Moreover, the account of his life also is informative about the long efforts and tears of many who labored to preserve the Traditional Roman Rite.

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WHEREIN FR. Z offers a new project: rescue, restore a spectacular set of vestments – UPDATED

Posted on 6 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 8 May 2026 13:50 CET

Pledges from

MR, AK, JV, JK, NW, T&LI, ME, MM,  ARG, CD, SH, EB, KB

THANK YOU.  The Pastor at The Parish™ is over the moon.

The next step… I’ll write an email to you about how to proceed.

There may be some of you who see this late and would have liked to participate.   There is another project waiting to get off the ground.  The Parish™ has items – 2nd class relics – of B. Pius IX, who was an active member of the Archconfraternity which St. Philip Neri founded to see to the spiritual and material needs of pilgrims to Rome, including the sick.  The idea is a) to find a way to display them properly and b) do some restoration of one of them, one of Bl. Pius’ pontifical shoes along with the container they came in.  I believe that will take about $5000 for the whole thing.

Thanks again.

 

 

I hereby present a project.

We build the corporal and spiritual health of the communities which enjoy the Vetus Ordo brick by brick.   By helping them, we raise all boats like a rising tide.  Those who attend the Novus Ordo are also genuinely aided by attraction and osmosis.

At The Parish™, buried in a bottom drawer, is a spectacular white set worked with real gold from the time of Bl. Pius IX… he was a member of the mighty Archconfraternity.  It is difficult adequately to underscore the importance of this group in Rome over the centuries.

The white set has also an altar frontal and tabernacle canopy.

Here is a photo of the frontal with the canopy.  NB: The canopy has been cleaned, but it needs more.  Look at the difference the years have wrought.

The vestments are in bad shape.   Here are a few of many photos I took.  First, look at this.

What must be done?  All of the decoration must be removed and transferred to new fabric.  This takes expert knowledge.  We have someone!

Some close ups of some of the pieces.
    

Makes you want to cry.  BUT… they are ready for rebirth.  As they are… using them would do terrible damage.

 

Gosh.
    

Here’s the point.

I’ll start with a bid for funds for the Tridentine Mass Society of the Diocese of Madison.  In this weird time of ecclesial demolition it is hard to know where your monetary support should go for constructive purposes.  Always remember the TMSM – 501(c)(3).

The estimate for the work is €12,000 which is about $14000.

We are going to restore this set.  It will take months.  It will only get more expensive and iffy the longer we wait.

I ask for donors willing to pledge at least $500 but ideally $1000 to the TMSM, which will pay for the restoration.

You names will be recorded and a document placed with the vestments so that you will be remembered by name when they are used.

When I get the right number of pledges, we can pull the trigger.

We have a good track record.  We did their baptismal font when they became the Traditional Parish in Rome, black vestments, red vestments.

Please drop me a note HERE and put this in the subject: PLEDGE 

If you want to pledge more, great!

DO NOT SENT MONEY YET.  When we have pledges, I will ask you – individually – for checks to go to the TMSM.  Non-$US donations can come maybe another way which I will figure out.

Friends, this is an important set of vestments… let’s save them and bring them back to the altar.

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ROME 26/5– Day 43: Res clamat Domino

Posted on 6 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The sun rose in Rome at 5:58.

Sunset was at 20:16:

The Ave Maria Bells hasn’t budged… in more ways than one… from 20:30.

Today, along with being the day of the Swearing of the new Swiss Guards, was a special Feast for the Diocese of Rome, St. John at the Latin Gate.  It was, in some places, the Feast of St. Dominic Savio.

The Romans call the Feast of St. John at the Latin Gate San Giovanni “sott’olio… St. John in oil”, which sounds like how you pack anchovies in a jar.

The Church of St John at the Latin Gate is at site of the attempted murder of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist.

John was in Rome in 92 AD at the time of the Emperor Domitian. According to the very early Latin writer Tertullian who died around 220, in his work The Prescription of Heretics the Romans tried to killed John by boiling him in oil but John emerged unscathed thousands of spectators were converted to Christianity when they saw John miraculous protection of harm.

There is also a story that they tried to poison john with a cup of venom filled wine. As John blessed it, the poisons emerged in the form of a snake. That is why we often see John depicted with a chalice with a little snake or dragon critter crawling out. Another good reason to bless our food and drink.  This is also why there is a special blessing for wine on the Feast of St. John just after Christmas.

After his miraculous protection from harm, John was banished from Rome to Patmos, where he wrote Revelation. A church was built on the place where John’s martyrdom took place near the southern part of the Rome’s wall. The aforementioned church is one of the Roman Stations during Lent. The building of the church goes back to the time of Pope Gelasius who died in 496, there are still roof tiles which have the stamp of Theodoric who ruled from 493- 526. The beautiful campanile or bell tower was added in the 8th century. the baroque decorations added in the 16 and 17th centuries were removed in the 1940’s.

There are different forms of martyrdom and not all of them are bloody. But authentic martyrdom is always a witness to the Faith of the person who is suffering and that witness bears fruit for the Faith of others.

Different forms of martyrdom can include dying to the world in different modes of living in the world, active and contemplative. Our reading today in Holy Mass today was a springboard for St. Augustine to look at this paring of figures, types of the active and contemplative lives, Peter and John, Leah and Rachel, Martha and Mary.

The cleaning of the travertine along the flank of The Parish™ on the Via dei Pettinari was completed. I hope they will do more.

Partly done from the other day.

All the way.  And… someone left a carrot on the wall.  Why?  It is a perfectly good carrot.  I  didn’t disturb it in case its rightful owner returned looking for it.   Res clamat Domino!  Maybe it’s one of those situations when you find a hub cap? or a glove?  You leave it there, but set it in a more visible place for the happy owner’s subsequent retrieval.

The Pastor of The Parish™ with the guys who did the work.

I noticed something when I looked up.  Directly across the street from the church’s wall is an old palazzo of a Rome family who were the patrons of the chapel to St. Philip Neri inside the church directly across from the palazzo door.  Up in the arch over the chapel is the coat of arms of the family which would have been framed in the window of (probably) the piano nobile.

I had never noticed it before.

And, in the travertine… who know what pilgrim carved this or when…

CLICK

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

And there’s this.  Hard to argue with the sentiment.  A delivery truck.

Meanwhile in the Rapid tournament in Warsaw, my guy Wesley So is doing well.  He was in the lead coming into Round 6, after which he is tied with the unlikable Hans Neimann, who may be growing up.   I had the pleasure of seeing one game play out in which Wesley defeated “Puer” (for whom I have had a long dislike because of his shenanigans with the Candidates a few years back.

Black can mate in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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If “full communion” with Rome requires full acceptance of ALL of Vatican II, then, by that standard, many Catholics are lacking “full communion”

Posted on 6 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. McTeigue hits another one out of the park.

Here’s the line of thought.

Before I get to that, you should know that the present Prefect of the DDF (olim CDF, a respectable office) told the SSPX that the documents of Vatican II can’t be changed. [We’ll let that claim pass for now, though I think it is not true.] That, in spite of the fact that John XXIII and Paul VI said that the Council was “pastoral” and not dogmatic. And “Rome” today seems to be saying that in order to be in full “communion” you have to accept all of Vatican II lock and stock. But… really? Why put that on the SSPX when no one else is held to that standard.

Hence, Fr. McTeigue… and I do not see any “escape” from this problem, even though Father deftly starts out with Harry Houdini.

I’m going to break this down so you can clearly see what he is doing and then REMEMBER it so you can use it yourselves.

Fr. McTeigue begins with the image of Harry Houdini escaping from impossible constraints: straitjacket, chains, barrel, waterfall. This becomes the metaphor for the current ecclesial problem.

The problem is the claim that “full communion with Rome” requires [NB] full acceptance of the documents of Vatican II.   [If you are an elected official from Minnesota or from Columbia Heights, that’s not “eleven”…. or Broward County.]

  • At first glance, this seems like a simple test: accept Vatican II fully, and one is in full communion; refuse it, and one is outside or in imperfect communion.
  • Fr. McTeigue says the matter is less simple, because many people who are treated as fully in communion with Rome may, in practice, reject parts of Vatican II.  [Even openly reject!]
  • He notes that John XXIII and Paul VI described Vatican II as pastoral rather than dogmatic.
  • McTeigue contrasts that with Cardinal Fernández’s claim that the documents of Vatican II [NB] “cannot be corrected.”
  • Fr. McT then identifies a tension: how can a pastoral council be treated as requiring uncorrectable acceptance in order to establish full communion?
  • His central claim is that almost no one fully accepts all the documents of Vatican II.
  • He then moves to Humanae vitae in 1968, which reaffirmed the Church’s rejection of artificial contraception and abortion.
  • He argues that Humanae vitae did not introduce a new teaching, but reiterated what Vatican II itself had already taught, especially in Gaudium et spes 51.
  • Gaudium et spes 51 condemns abortion as an “unspeakable crime” and also rejects artificial contraception.
  • Therefore, Catholics who reject Humanae vitae also reject part of Vatican II.
  • Many theologians, clergy, bishops’ conferences, and lay Catholics effectively rejected Humanae vitae after 1968.
  • He cites the infamous Winnipeg Statement as an example of episcopal resistance or weakening of the force of Humanae vitae.  The Canadian Bishops have never officially retracted the Winnipeg Statement.
  • McTeigue then appeals to survey data and demographic evidence, arguing that many Catholics contracept and abort at roughly the same rate as non-Catholics.
  • He also points to the steep decline in infant baptisms as circumstantial evidence that many Catholic married couples are not living according to the Church’s teaching on openness to life.
  • From this, he concludes that many Catholics de facto reject Humanae vitae and therefore de facto reject Gaudium et spes 51.  [“De facto” certainly because 99% of them don’t know and don’t care about any of the V2 documents and don’t know what HV said.]
  • [NB:] If full communion requires full acceptance of Vatican II, then, by that standard, these Catholics would also have to be judged as lacking full communion with Rome.
  • Father contrasts this with the treatment of Catholics attached to traditional Latin liturgy, who are often pressured, investigated, restricted, or told they must accept Vatican II fully.
  • There is clearly an unequal application: traditionalists are scrutinized for Vatican II acceptance, while Catholics rejecting Vatican II’s teaching on contraception and abortion are not treated with comparable urgency.
  • He argues that Rome has not issued similar urgent mandates to bring contracepting and aborting Catholics to full acceptance of Vatican II.
  • The Houdini metaphor returns: the Church’s current rhetoric about “full communion,” Vatican II, and selective enforcement creates an apparently impossible bind.
  • There is a serious inconsistency in how “full communion with Rome” is being defined and enforced.

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Posted in Si vis pacem para bellum!, SSPX, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged
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“The law speaks of brotherhood and fatherhood. Many priests experience managerialism and abandonment.”

Posted on 6 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is an important post at Rorate today.  I’ve written on this topic also, but not for a while.  It is critical that as many people review this and, if possible, get it in front of the eyes of bishops.   Here’s an excerpt.

Abandoned Shepherds: Fear, Fatherhood, and the Crisis of Episcopal Support in the Contemporary Catholic Priesthood

[…]

What, then, is the problem? The problem is that there exists, in too many dioceses and religious institutes, a significant gap between the framework the law provides and the lived reality that priests experience. The law speaks of brotherhood and fatherhood. Many priests experience managerialism and abandonment.

This gap is not, in most cases, the product of malice. It is the product of an institutional culture shaped by decades of crisis management; above all, by the catastrophe of clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up, which rightly demanded a radical change in how the Church handles allegations against clergy. The pendulum, however, has in many places swung so far that the presumption of innocence, the duty of pastoral support, and the obligation of canonical due process have been, in practice if not in law, subordinated to the imperatives of institutional self-protection and public relations management.

My canonical work has brought me into close contact with the process by which priests are reduced to the lay state. This is, in canonical terms, the most serious administrative, legal and penal consequence that can befall a priest: the loss of the clerical state, the permanent dissolution, in most cases, of all bonds of clerical obligation and privilege. It is, in the theological sense, a tragedy. Not necessarily a moral one; there are cases in which such a reduction is entirely just and necessary. But it remains always a tragedy, because it represents the end of what was meant to be a permanent configuration to Christ the Priest.

I have participated in such processes in cases where the necessity was clear: grave and persistent moral failure, incapacity for ministry, the abandonment of all priestly practice. In these cases, the reduction to the lay state, carried out according to the norms of Canon Law and the procedural requirements of the Dicastery for the Clergy, is an act of mercy for the priest himself and of justice for the People of God.

But I have also witnessed, with increasing frequency and increasing pain, the departure of priests who are not guilty of any grave moral failure. Young men, some of them with the oil of their ordination barely dry, who have quietly, without fanfare, sought and obtained laicisation not because they have sinned gravely, but because they have become disillusioned. And when I have had the opportunity to speak with them, what I have heard, again and again, is a version of the same story: “I was not supported… When I needed my bishop, he was not there… When I tried to do what I believed to be right, I was left to face the consequences alone… I cannot live like this for fifty years.” These are not men who lost their faith. They are, in many cases, men of genuine piety and pastoral zeal. They are men who were broken by institutional loneliness and by fear.

The Power of Fear

Now, the fear I am describing is not the salutary fear of the Lord, the timor Domini that is the beginning of wisdom. It is not the legitimate prudential caution that a wise priest exercises in navigating the complexities of pastoral life. It is something much more corrosive: a pervasive anxiety about institutional consequences that colours the exercise of priestly ministry at every level.

[…]

Posted in Cancelled Priests, Magisterium of Nuns, Priests and Priesthood |
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Be sure to take in Diana Montagna’s “Substack” today

Posted on 6 May 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Be sure to take in Diana Montagna’s “Substack” today. HERE

How it begins…

Has the Vatican’s Synod Office Become Fr. James Martin’s PR Arm?

Synod study group report highlights testimony of New York Times-featured man blessed with “husband” by James Martin after Fiducia Supplicans.

[Irritating Photo]

VATICAN CITY, 6 May 2026 — On Tuesday, the Vatican published the Final Report of the Synod on Synodality’s study group on “controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical questions,” prominently featuring two anonymous testimonies from openly homosexual men in “same-sex marriages.”

The decision was immediately praised by Fr. James Martin, SJ, as “a significant step forward in the Church’s relationship with the LGBTQ community.”

What neither the Vatican nor Fr. Martin has acknowledged, however, is that one of the testimonies appears to have been written by the man featured in a 2023 New York Times article receiving a blessing with his same-sex partner from the same Jesuit priest, just one day after the publication of Fiducia Supplicans.

[…]

Coincidence?

You’ll probably get angry as you read more.

Posted in Jesuits, Sin That Cries To Heaven |
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