Fr. Z and the St. Patrick's Day "heresy"

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Mattapoisett64

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I am not Fr. Z’s greatest fan, but I noticed that in his blog today, he characterized the practice of dispensing from Lenten abstinence on St. Patrick’s Day when it falls on a Friday as “Neopelagian,” Pelagianism of course being a heresy condemned by the Church. In years past, when March 17 has been a Friday, our bishop has in fact issued such a dispensation. So my question is: do I report our bishop for being a heretic, or do I report Fr. Z for calling him one? And I’m curious: I see where Fr. Z is incardinated in an obscure diocese outside Rome, despite living and working in Madison Wisconsin. Is there a reason for this? Does he have any ecclesiastical superiors in the U.S., or is he just some kind of free-lance Internet presence?
 
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Of course we honor St. Patrick on his feast day and break from our fast. I have always heard of a dispensation for that, even for those not Irish.
 
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I had a Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day last year…
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
So my question is: do I report our bishop for being a heretic, or do I report Fr. Z for calling him one?
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Fasting is not a doctrinal foundation. It is a practice/observance. Or abstaining from meat on Friday’s. The Bishop does have the right to dispense with this. Even the Pope dispenses certain fasting observances and abstinences for older people, working people under which labor they cannot risk not eating more regularly, and so forth. It’s with Prudence. We do understand that the Dispensation falls around a Saint Feast day, not a pagan holiday. But then again, the world has created celebration around the Saint.

My Bishop dispensed with Friday Lenten observances for the Lunar New Year. Which I think is wrong, and ill prudent. Beside, Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Vietnamese new years have seafood beside meat being served. So it’ doesn’t obstruct the celebration. I might imagine, the dispensation is given so that around the celebration around the Lunar New Year, will not cause people to sin. Because they failed to observe the Lenten rule. So, the Bishop likely dispensed Lenten observance for Friday so people would not sin because they would had likely eaten meat.

While I can understand/see the Bishop’s reason. The fact and matter is it’s Lent, for our salvation. Making accommodations to people’s customs/habits/traditions rather than blessing them. That ignores change/metanoia. Which is the grounds for Salvation. Without it, we are dead in our sins.

There is nothing heretical with either the Priest or Bishop. They both disagree on the judgement/matter of dispensation. Fr. Z has a really valid point not to water down the Gospel and Lent to accommodate people. And in the same token, the Bishop uses the Saint’s feast day as a time of celebration and joy.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
So my question is: do I report our bishop for being a heretic, or do I report Fr. Z for calling him one?
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Ha ha. I think you would need to report the Pope because Fr Z is quoting a phrase used by the Pope in Evangelii Gaudium to describe " feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past".

IOW, Fr Z was making a joke.

I think you need to understand hat you are reading before you go around making such absurd statements.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
And I’m curious: I see where Fr. Z is incardinated in an obscure diocese outside Rome, despite living and working in Madison Wisconsin. Is there a reason for this? Does he have any ecclesiastical superiors in the U.S., or is he just some kind of free-lance Internet presence?
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I believe Father Z is under the jurisdiction of his bishop in Rome but is allowed by the bishop of Madison to reside in Wisconsin. The bishop of Madison could kick him out if he wanted to. But from what I know, the bishop of Madison actually kind of likes him.
 
A bishop is free to dispense Lenten fasting and abstinence if he chooses. That whole binding and loosing thing…

Many American Catholics of a certain vintage may remember that the Bishop of Rome would grant them a dispensation for the Friday after Thanksgiving (back when abstinence EVERY Friday was the rule).
 
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For the last hour or two I’ve been trying to access Fr. Z’s blog to see what this is all about. I can’t get in. Have others had the same difficulty?
 
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I couldn’t find it either. At least not in his recent article.
 
Fr. Z needs to focus once and awhile on philippians 4:4…there is far more to rejoice about, even in this world, than to grumble about.
 
Some others need to focus on not cherry picking scripture to ‘complain’ about those they are trying to paint as complainers!
 
stpurl said:
Some others need to focus on not cherry picking scripture to ‘complain’ about those they are trying to paint as complainers!
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Or, if you’d rather, in the words of St. T rather than Fr. Z, “God save us from sour faced saints!”
 
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I like the WDTPRS analyses that he does for the introit and collect prayers of the Mass. I find that when I read his WDPTRS articles, which are scholarly meditations, ahead of time the prayers are more meaningful for me at Mass. Not all is complaining! 🙂
 
He’s a priest with a blog who is fairly well know in online Catholic circles.
 
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