Monthly Archives: December 2015

ASK FATHER: Frequent confession to overcome pornography

From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, I am a new Catholic and I’m struggling mightily to overcome a past life filled with pornography. Sometimes I fail the day after a confession. Some Priests have told me not to go more than … Read More

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, GO TO CONFESSION, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , , ,
31 Comments

Crossing the threshold of … mercy

Pope Benedict enters St. Peter’s Basilica through the newly opened Holy Door.

Posted in Benedict XVI, Year of Mercy |
11 Comments

ASK FATHER: Can’t go to Mass on Sunday. Are we obliged to go on Saturday?

From a reader… QUAERITUR: I’m satisfied that Canon 1248 clearly grants us a generous concession to fulfill / satisfy our obligation to assist at Mass on a Sunday by going on Saturday evening. If my Church has a Saturday evening … Read More

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Canon Law, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged , , ,
22 Comments

The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe

Fr. Hopkins (a Jesuit!) wrote this as a May offering for Mary in 1883, but I think it fits well today, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is also a good poem for the day that is simultaneously Immaculate Conception … Read More

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , ,
2 Comments

Speak badly of Pope Francis and incur automatic excommunication… NOT.

During the Year of Mercy – which I guess already began, at least in Africa, but which is going to begin sometime tomorrow in Rome and then some days later elsewhere – certain confessors are to be granted faculties to … Read More

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Canon Law, GO TO CONFESSION, HONORED GUESTS, The Drill, What are they REALLY saying?, Year of Mercy | Tagged , ,
13 Comments

ASK FATHER: Godparent by proxy?

From a reader… QUAERITUR: I am an American living in Europe, and I was baptized and confirmed by a priest (not the bishop) in the Roman Catholic Church at Easter in 2009 (at the age of 35) in the Czech Republic. … Read More

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged , ,
3 Comments

Turning St. Peter’s Basilica into a projection screen for climate change panic propaganda

UPDATE 8 Dec 2015 GMT: I pulled up the live stream of the webcam over St. Peter’s Square. The facade of San Pietro… I am trying to imagine what St. Peter would think about this. Based on his anger toward … Read More

Posted in Pò sì jiù, Year of Mercy, You must be joking! | Tagged ,
66 Comments

Sister bags a buck

Here is a great story… This is from the Diocese of Erie, via Global News: Benedictine Sister John Paul Bauer prayed the rosary in her tree stand the first morning of hunting season. Then she shot and killed a 100-kilogram, … Read More

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged , ,
17 Comments

Advent Rorate Masses

Some of you have written asking about “Rorate Masses” during Advent. This is a beautiful custom whereby Mass is celebrated illuminated only by candlelight. They are usually before dawn. The Mass is a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin, and … Read More

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged
15 Comments

Strike your breasts in sorrow and hope

Imagine for a moment the sound made in church of hundreds of people simultaneously and with force striking their breasts with closed fists. St. Augustine, in his Enarrationes in psalmos 117, speaks of the thunder-like sound, strepitus, made in church by … Read More

Posted in Hard-Identity Catholicism, Patristiblogging | Tagged , ,
4 Comments