So anyway.
I was telling some friends about some of the Catholic blogs I read and the stuff people say online. A couple of friends asked to check out a blog by a priest I mentioned. They did so over the weekend and yesterday. After reading some of his recent posts and homepage, their collective response:
"Is this guy really a priest?"
"He talks like that?"
"Is he a priest in good standing?"
"He's really a Catholic priest?"
"It figures he requires readers to register and be approved to comment."
That's all folks.
That's nothing compared to what many of them say on Facebook. And all those good "Catholic" bloggers on Facebook? Pretty horrific. Be glad you're not participating.
ReplyDeleteI am glad - I was on there once but quit.
DeleteI can not ever go to his site again, as it just disturbs me so much, for all of the same questions your friends gave.
ReplyDeleteI assume you are talking about Fr. Z. He's the only priest I know who fits the majority of the categories above. I'm not sure what makes people so uncomfortable about him. He's one of the few priests who tells it like it is. We need more like him!
ReplyDeleteWhen people say someone "tells it like it is," that usually means, "Tells me all the things I want to hear." And I actually have no problem with Z Pacs right ring rhetoric (though it usually seems forced and blustery, like his "machismo," ) as long as he actually says, "Hey these are my political views and that is that," and not try to present it as authentic Catholic teaching. His theology is rather right wing but I don't see anything that is not Catholic doctrine so no problem there.
ReplyDeleteActually I find him entertaining and sad at the same time. When I first went there I thought it was a parody blog..the constant whor...whining for money, actually boasting that he says Mass for his donators intentions, his obsession with the "Precise," way of doing things ("the rose robe is NEVER brought out until vespers on the third full moon of the year when Venus intersects with Mars and the temp reaches last least 49.5 degrees..." but then trying to act as if he is a good ole boy with guns, the fact that he uses his donations not to help anyone (that I can see) but to jet over to Rome to try to act like one of the cool kids, and spending it on "Fabulous," food and sight seeing and name dropping, the fact that he doesn't actually seem to have a "job," (why isn't he assigned a parish, is he just Priest on the Prowl,) his carefully curated 'fans" or posters who all fawn over him and send him money hand over fist just to watch him post about how he spent it on Cog au Vin while dining with an Opera Singer and a Cardinal... but then I also find him sad and depressing for all of those things as he is for real...he on his own be a clown but the fact that people are being suckered by him for their money I am surprised someone in the Church has not stepped in.
Mack, I think you make very good points. Father Z has not only banned me from posting comments on his blog, he has actually banned me from even viewing his blog from my home AND work IP addresses. Why? Because I dared to show him that his interpretation of Summorum Pontificum was wrong . He contends that the OF and EF are two separate rites, not just two forms of the same rite. I showed him that SP clearly states that they are two forms of the same rite and that thre follow up letter of 2011 repeats that. I didn't even use my own words, I used the words of Pope Benedict XVI. This, of course, undermines his entire selling point that the EF is superior to the OF and that the EF is the salvation of the world.
DeleteHe certainly showed that he doesn't care about my soul in any sense of the world. He, in effect, told me to go to hell. If people actually see that traditionalism is not the salvation of the church and the world, his cushy position as you so well described is threatened, and he might have to actually work like other priests do.
I know, Terry, that you don't like me talking like this, but it is the truth. Faither Z has a lot for which he must answer.
P.S. In can you are invested in reading a more detailed account of my ban from Father Z's blog, here is a link.
Deletehttp://catholicinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2015/05/father-john-zuholsdorf-bans-me-from-his.html
I apologize. A better description would be the following link:
Deletehttp://catholicinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2015/04/father-z-spittle-flecked-nutty-against.html
....I too find him sad & lonely yet dangerously at the same time extremely controlling - being like that is a circle, 'round and 'round, and I just have wondered why no one in authority has tried to break through. Perhaps they have, perhaps with such sensitivity that it has gone over his head. One has to Want to hear before one....hears....
ReplyDeleteWith the internet, it makes a guy like him a real lone-ranger. I think that previously, when one's contacts had to be exclusively face-to-face, it may have been harder to continue in the same vein. I ended visiting the site completely when I saw that he was taking photos of the Christmas cards he had been sent. Yes, Mack, I agree with all you wrote, and yes indeedy it Is very sad & depressing. He reminds me of some of the alcoholics I have known, pretty self-delusional yet always somehow having a coterie of enablers.
Although I hate to think about it I am sure there have been many, many lonely priests who fall off the rails due to this very loneliness: however the brotherhood of Priests has sufficed for most. Guess all we can do is pray for the guy - all his possessions, books, guns, apocalyptic supplies, et al, will never fill the void, one would imagine that Christ would be doing that...also I am sure that he is treated with great compassion by his fellow clergy in Madison. At least, I hope so.
Mack and Consolata - perhaps Fr. Z can be parodied like that - but he's not so much on his own as he used to be and has a bishop over his head. To be fair, his following is not just online but he is very much support by real live people in my area and around the country - as well as in the UK and elsewhere. His doctrine is solid.
DeleteI also think he writes for fun - sometimes - he must enjoy pushing buttons. For those who do not like religious people he is a convenient target and I think he knows that, which may be why he brandishes a gun.
Just like the pope, he doesn't need me to defend him. I just don't want people to get the idea I think he is some kind of Rasputin priest. He's not.
That said - the Catholic blogosphere is not a friendly place.
...now I feel ashamed and uncharitable....as well I should !
DeleteNot at all sweetie - you are simply noting the impression he gives to you and others agree. It is the effect of words expressed in scorn, anger, bitterness - that comes through Fr.'s writings and critiques. He himself may not be aware of it.
Delete..........thank you Terry.....L
DeleteI don't have a problem with his grandstanding and his politics and his ego...I think those are human failings we all have....I do however, I have a problem with his taking money from what I would consider fools, and spending it on himself. I almost said fleecing but that isn't right as he is very upfront about what he uses his money for,,I think its unbecoming of a priest. I also think he is full of sh*t half the time too but that's my opinion. I would think that his Bishop would have more to say about his fundraising.
DeleteCatholic in Brooklyn, I can see Z Pac doing that, as he likes to portray himself as a Church and doctrinal expert and loves that his readers hold him as such. To knock him off his pedestal is most likely worse then reading the Fishwrap!!!!
I have no idea what kind of priest he is in his day to day life, so I am not talking about that, just his online personality. He comes off as an egotistical, narcissistic blow hard!