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About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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- The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
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Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”- Fulton Sheen
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Fr John Zuhlsdorf
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- “The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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frz AT wdtprs DOT comAs for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
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Recent Posts
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 41: Monday of Holy Week – All tenderness
- ROME 26/3– Day 06: Palm Sunday
- Tradition … “safeguard the faith and combat error”
- What the Bishop of Charlotte is doing – UPDATE
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 40: Palm Sunday – GO TO CONFESSION
- ROME 26/3– Day 05: staying in
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 39: Saturday in Passiontide – POISON
- ROME 26/3– Day 04: cold and windy
- Update: working on the Mass Intention Request Form
- Pope Leo’s admonition to French bishops about the TLM and Vatican II
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 38: Friday in Passiontide – Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows
- ROME 26/3– Day 03: the color purple
- Pope Leo asks for generosity from bishops towards people who seek the TLM. I’ve seen this movie before.
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 37: Thursday in Passiontide – Babylon and Nard
- The Annunciation – The 1st Joyful Mystery (Patristic Rosary Project) Ave Gratiarum Mediatrix Omnium!
- ROME 26/3– Day 02: Annunciation
- Updating the different 3 different contact “forms”: Contact, Ask Father, Mass Intention Requests
- Cardinal Eijk’s first Pontifical Mass in the Traditional Roman Rite: “impressive and unforgettable experience”. Wherein Fr. Z rants.
- TESTING the POLL plugin to see if it works – your assistance requested – FIXED (I think)
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 36: Wednesday in Passiontide & Annunciation – Good Shepherd in the Mass
- Fr. McTeigue triggered my PTTSD
- ROME 26/3– Day 01: And so it begins
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 35: Tuesday in Passiontide – Christ’s suffering, popular piety
- Test of app and MY VIEW FOR AWHILE: Rome bound
- Article at The Catholic Thing about the two forms of the Roman Rite
- ROME 26/3– Day 00: Brooklyn and blog
- LENTCAzT 2026 – 34: Monday in Passiontide – Ancient v. Modern Views
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – Passion Sunday, 5th in/of Lent 2026 – POLL about veils
- ASK FATHER: John 8:55
- I love this story and it makes me sad
Let us pray…
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
Tag Archives: cassock
VIDEO: How to fold a cassock, normal and with a shoulder cape
During my last trip to Rome (thanks, donors), I had business at the famous clerical shop Gammarelli. I ask one of the helpful men at the shop to demonstrate how properly to fold a cassock. This is a useful … Continue reading
ASK FATHER: Liturgy director tries to forbid altar boys from wearing cassock and surplice.
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Our diocesan liturgical director is trying to prevent parishes from having altar servers wear cassocks and surplices, claiming they’re “clerical garb,” so lay people can’t wear them. Is his claim legitimate? Is there any official statement … Continue reading
ASK FATHER: Priest’s cassocks with shoulder capes
From a reader… I was wondering if any secular/diocesan priest is allowed to wear a black mozzetta as part of their choir dress? I have seen pictures of some priests wearing a black mozzetta such as the Canons Regular of … Continue reading
ASK FATHER: Shoulder cape on cassocks for priests
From a priest: A priest in the olden days was permitted to wear such a shoulder cape (look at pics of St Don Bosco – [A founder of a religious order]) and it was built together as a simar cassock, … Continue reading
¡VIVA LA SOTANA! A video about …
A reader sent me a a link to a video trailer for a Spanish language documentary about the cassock. Yes, the cassock. While the video struck me as being perhaps a little saccharin. I’ll give them a pass for being … Continue reading
ASK FATHER: Why don’t bishops wear cassocks?
From a reader: I am wondering why most modern bishops just wear a clerical suit? Why do they very rarely wear the cassock with the proper color trim? We almost never see eastern rite or even the orthodox out in … Continue reading
ASK FATHER: Prayers for putting on cassock, surplice
From a reader… QUAERITUR: While vesting for Mass, a member of the clergy (at least in the EF; the priests I know do it for OF too) will say a set of prayers as he is putting the different vestments … Continue reading
ASK FATHER: Cassock, surplice, girls
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, Am I correct in saying that Cassock & Surplice is male attire and that girls should NOT wear it? And if this is the case why do people let it happen? I am taking over … Continue reading
QUAERITUR: Deacon tried to intimidate me out of wearing the cassock.
From a priest reader: I recently spoke with the permanent deacon in our parish after he saw me hanging up my cassock after hearing confessions. He asked me, is the cassock again being proposed as normal attire for priests in the seminary? … Continue reading
QUAERITUR: Can a rector or bishop forbid seminarians or priests use of the cassock?
From a reader: In my diocese there are a small number of seminarians who wish to wear their cassock after their first year of study at the seminary. They have approached the bishop and rector about doing so, but both have refused to … Continue reading





















