When Does The Party Really Stop?

Father John Zühlsdorf is a priest of the Suburbicarian* Diocese of Velletri-Segni. Don't let that fool you, though. He lives in Minnesota, the state from which he hails. He lives on a farm, which I am told is in the family. Beyond that I don't know much. But from the photos he has shared, it is a charming place of respite, from which he waxes eloquently on the ornithological activity of the locale, not to mention a host of other arcane but no less fascinating subject matter, including what's for dinner.

The good Father writes a column for The Wanderer entitled “What Does The Prayer Really Say?” which is devoted to an understanding of the Latin texts of the official prayer of the Church. He also has a blog by the same name. It is the latter which is his true claim to fame, such that the Catholic Herald in the UK has called him “The World’s Most Powerful Catholic Blogger.” As a former curial official in Rome, he knows a lot of ins and outs of how things work in the Church, and it's pretty safe to say that if your bishop does something really stupid in his diocese, and he posts your letter about it with his stunning commentary, someone in Rome is reading it, and somebody in your neck of the woods will be getting an overseas call later in the day.

(Officially, things must still run their course, but in this writer's opinion, such a venue makes it easier to place bets on the outcome. Just sayin'...)

This past week, I've been a participant in nearly a dozen of his recent posts, as they are subjects close to me. This is a personal record for my activity there. He gets pretty rough on people who misbehave. He's even gotten on MY case. Can you believe that? (He hates it when I meet his match, and he starts inserting threats in red type. So I have to use restraint. Really. I have.)

Anyway, here are the posts from his WDTPRS blog in which I have been commenting.

•    Ouija boards are NOT toys

•    Still hacking away at the SSPX book

•    Candlemass review

•    TAC Archbp. Hepworth on Anglicanorum coetibus

•    Benedict XVI to the Church’s jurists and tribunals: “shun pseudo-pastoral claims”

•    Possibly Advent 2011 for the new English translation

•    QUAERITUR: Readings in English during Extraordinary Form Mass

Despite having acquired the use of a humongous server to meet the demand of the millions of admirers and readers who clamor to his site for their daily fix -- okay, so I'm one of them, what about it? -- there is no means of e-mail alerts to tell you someone has responded to your comment. So I gotta keep going over there. What a pain! Meanwhile, the above are just the ones I care about.

There is one other issue, one he has dealt with in the past, which he really doesn't handle as well as he could. And he's tried several times. One of these days, I'll deal with it here. Then he'll copy it and put it on his blog, and start picking nits in bold red lettering. It is then, and only the, that I will know, that I have truly arrived in the Catholic blogosphere.

A man can dream, can't he?

+    +    +

* "Suburbicarian" is pertaining to a "suburban" or adjoining diocese outside of the Diocese of Rome, one whose ordinary is a "cardinal-bishop" or one of senior ranking in the College of Cardinals. The jurisdictions have varied slightly over time. There are presently seven.
.