Fr. Z's Blog

Over at One Peter Five (where I also post a weekly column for Sundays) there is an entry about how to get a Sacred Heart flag and while providing support for the site.

Check it out HERE.

If you get one, tell them in the memo that Fr Z sent you!

In Friday, a major holiday for Italy, the sun came up at 06:12 and it sank back down at 20:05. It’s nice that the days are getting longer.

The Roman Station was at the Pantheon, aka, Santa Maria ad martyres.

25 April is the Festa della Liberazione… the Holiday of the Liberation from Nazism and Fascism as WWII came to an end.

Here is little tune which became an unofficial anthem for the anti-fascism movement in Italy and then a song for freedom from tyranny in other places.

I wonder if we will have freedom from tyranny in other spheres.   It seems like the season for it.

We might start with Bruno Forte… what a guy.

ITALY

Bishop Bruno Forte BERATES three people for receiving Communion on the tongue

He claims that Communion should only be received in the hands and that it is ‘pride’ that makes people do otherwise

What are your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/bWqXm0UiSr

— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) April 24, 2025

What Forte says here – and it is so condescending – is that people who want to receive on the tongue are disobedient and they think they know better than the Pope and bishops.

Well… maybe they do!

He says that for centuries they received in the hand, for which he has zero evidence.  Then in “darker times” people started receiving on the tongue out of fear of, get this, lack of hygiene.

He grounds his argument on Jesus’ saying (in the Greek) “labete … take” which he say take with the hand. However, lambano can mean a lot of things. Anyone who has ever studied any Greek has had to learn the verb, because it is used as a common paradigm. lambano can also mean a range of things, such as … and put yourself into the context now of the LAST SUPPER and Christ speaking to his new priests who will be the source of Apostolic Tradition.  I’ll emphasize some interesting possibilities:

1. 1. to take
      1. to take with the hand, lay hold of, any person or thing in order to use it
         1. to take up a thing to be carried
         2. to take upon one’s self
      2. to take in order to carry away
         1. without the notion of violence, i,e to remove, take away [in classical Greek also to take by violence]
      3. to take what is one’s own, to take to one’s self, to make one’s own
         1. to claim, procure, for one’s self 1c
      4. to associate with one’s self as companion, attendant
         1. of that which when taken is not let go, to seize, to lay hold of, apprehend
         2. to take by craft (our catch, used of hunters, fisherman, etc.), to circumvent one by fraud [which sounds what some politicians do and what communion in the hand looks like]
         3. to take to one’s self, lay hold upon, take possession of, i.e. to appropriate to one’s self
         4. catch at, reach after, strive to obtain
         5. to take a thing due, to collect, gather (tribute)
      5. to take [“to take” is another way of saying “to eat”]
         1. to admit, receive
         2. to receive what is offered
         3. not to refuse or reject
         4. to receive a person, give him access to one’s self, 1d
   2. to regard any one’s power, rank, external circumstances, and on that account to do some injustice or neglect something [more abuse than positive]
      1. to take, to choose, select
      2. to take beginning, to prove anything, to make a trial of, to experience
   3. to receive (what is given), to gain, get, obtain, to get back

And … on the way to supper with a friend last night.

We were being seated but were also standing and chatting with people at the table next to us, priests I happened to know who came to Rome for the canonization of Carlo Acutis, and a Cardinal rolled in and wanted our table.  The proprietor, being a friend and a really good friend of my dining companion, took them inside.  Sorry Your Eminence.

These nifty bruschette have a dressing of brain and artichoke.

Boiled and fried balls of pork “quinto quarto”, liver, intestine, brain, etc., with a marvelous herb sauce.

Bistecca alla fiorentina.   We couldn’t eat it all so I brought the rest home.

A little salt and lemon and olive oil.  It doesn’t get better.   It was extremely tender.   This was a 60 day (I think… maybe more?) aged porterhouse.

I saw a story elsewhere that the chain for the tolling of the great bell at San Pietro for the death of a pope was found to be broken and the bell had to be rung manually. Not only that, it took five men to do it.

In this video I see one man ringing the bell manually and it sounds at the right pace. Maybe there were four other guys to take over after this one got tired?

Footage of the bell-ringer of St. Peter’s Basilica announcing #PopeFrancis‘ death to the world April 21. pic.twitter.com/Bf6AZVoo7h

— Catholic News Service Rome (@CatholicNewsSvc) April 24, 2025

Anti-drone rifles… it had to happen.

Italian soldiers with anti-drone rifles in Rome, Vaticanoi, for fear Islamist attacks. Because of Islam we are forced to live in fear. pic.twitter.com/nnuS5Nflu2

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) April 25, 2025

Interim, motus ad lusorem cum militibus albis pertinent. Scaccus mattus, scilicet mors regis, duobus in motis veniat.

NB: Detineam explicationes in crastinum, ne vestrae interrumpantur commentationes.

UPDATE:

Those of you who answered that it is mate in 1, you were right.  That’s because I, stupidly, posted the image of the board after white’s first move and blacks response.  THIS should be the starting position…

A little anticlimactic now.

When did the Sun rise at Rome? 6:15

When will it set? 20:03.

What cycle is the Ave Maria Bell in for the Curia? 20:15

It is the feast, among others, of Sts. Maria of Clopas and Salome, disciples of the Lord.

There are reasons to pay attention to them because they help also to untangle the issue of the “brothers” of the Lord.

It’s Thursday in the Easter Octave and the Roman Station, because it is a Thursday, is the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles.  That’s where the tomb of Clement XIV is.  Also, the Apostles Philip and James.

A CONCLAVE THOUGHT:

Am I missing something or is this a little strange.

These surely worthy fellows can vote in the conclave

Apostolic Nuncio to Syria
Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Bishop of Tonga
Bishop of Ajaccio
Bishop of Como

… but not the (under 80) Archbishops of

Los Angeles
Milan
Paris
Madrid

Welcome Registrants:

Breakspear
p27jmcguire

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.

JASMINE REPORT (And I don’t mean the Jesuit)

It’s starting to bloom where the sun is strong. Soon there will be walls of it!

A reader issued a strong approbation of the peonies yesterday.   Another view.  They are spectacular.

Heading to the Campo down the Via dei Cappellari.

Well, this is directly left beside the confessional of our own ?? Hungarian Dominican Father Lajos Melo who hears confession in ALL the languages of the old monarchy ? https://t.co/kckwn3j9iZ

— Eduard Habsburg (@EduardHabsburg) April 23, 2025

Here is a noteworthy tweet…

Thank you Father V, I don’t believe what you say is hyperbolic, I believe it is the simple truth. We must pray and fast, the Cardinal’s have the future of humanity in their hands. May they remember that their red robes signify that they are willing to shed their blood as Christ… https://t.co/JkSzshUPQb

— Bishop J. Strickland (@BishStrickland) April 23, 2025

And… his English is good.

Jerusalem Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is considered papabile, is on his way to attend the conclave to elect the next Pope at the Vatican.

Video: Latin Patriarchate pic.twitter.com/MhnjzeI29K

— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) April 23, 2025

Lunatic stuff from one of the guys who rigged the family synod with a queer agenda… called out by Card. Erdo.

“Communion on the Tongue is an act of pride and disobedience.”

As @DecreviD2BC notes, this astounding rewriting of Church history and law by Archbp Bruno Forte is making the rounds in Italian social media. (Video in ?)

Has His Excellency even met the Catholics he is insulting? pic.twitter.com/5vfXL2r3tv

— JuventutemDC (@juventutemDC) April 23, 2025

In chessy news…

White to move and mate in 4.

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

As I write, I have returned home from supper with a priest who just arrived in Rome for the canonization of Carlo Acutis… which has been cancelled. Other things are going on.

Returning home I find no internet. I’m using cellular data but I could not, for some reason, tether my laptop, which I tested and tried before I left for Rome.

I happened to buy a thin portable Bluetooth keyboard which I am using now to type into my iPhone WP app for the blog. That helps.

I’m not sure what the sitrep is with internet. Checking online (with the phone) shows no outages for Vodafone Italia. Maybe they show it outside of Italy, I don’t know. Maybe this is another example of the gummint screwing with internet in advance of all sorts of big shots descending on Rome in the next few days.

All I know is that, if this doesn’t clear up, I may be working from the sacristy or a bar if it doesn’t clear up by morning.

So, I am not quite cut off, but I am a bit crippled until I can find out what the deal is with internet here. I did pay my bill, of course.

In the meantime, for you dear readers who like food photos. I’ll try to upload a couple from supper now and then hit the hay.

Roman style artichoke. Perfect. Fork sank through it.

Pizza Bianca … hmmm Pizzaballa… Fumo Bianco…

Seconds after (it was cold) I cut it, it was oozing milk. Mozzarella as God intended.

Alla norcina. Could have been in a better bowl. The fancier the bowl the harder to eat in an integrated way. Goodies go to the bottom so you must incessantly lift and sift. Keep it simple.

Salitimbocca which I had not had since I’ve arrived. It was just right tonight.

I spoke at length with the waiter, long-serving, old-school, seen it all. He said the Jubilee is a flop. They had a huge lunch crowd but almost all the tables tonight were empty! And this is a well-known place in the heart of things, in a Jubilee when clerics are flooding in. Cardinals eat here (not ones I like) so it is known and established. We had a leisurely meal over a couple of hours. In their main room with over a dozen tables, there were two other tables with people and one turned over. The Jubilee… meh.

However, now I am hearing that rooms are booking FAST and some clerics were possibly going to be booted from their reservations (for Carlos Acutis) to make room for the guys with colorful sashes and bigger accounts.

What did Jesus say about the “aquilae”?

UPDATE: 5 minutes after I posted this, the internet came back up.

Of course it did. Anything to keep me from sleep.

UPDATE: It will be interesting to watch things like bandwidth and GPS over the next few days as preparations are made here for the arrival of many heads of state.  In years past when some big shot came in, you could look at your phone for a map and watch it drift around trying to find where you were.  Big shots leave, everything back to normal.  Maybe they’ve gotten better at things.  We shall see.