Convert from Lutheranism, ordained to the priesthood in 1991 by St. John Paul II in Rome for the Suburbicarian Diocese of Velletri-Segni. Classics at University of Minnesota. Licence and Doctoral studies in Patristic Theology at the Augustinianum in Rome. Formerly a collaborator of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," moderator of the Catholic Online Forum, columnist for The Wanderer and the UK's Catholic Herald, Fox News contributor. Speaker. Blogist. fatherzonline.com @fatherz
Author: Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
13th Sunday after Pentecost: “Unclean! Unclean”
The onset of Hansen’s Disease comes with patches of skin that change color and become numb. If left untreated, it can result in paralysis, the reabsorption into the body of the extremities, ulcerations, blindness, disfiguration. It is not highly contagious, …
12th Sunday after Pentecost: Mugged by the Truth
Let’s have a peek at the Gospel for this 12th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo. Context. In Luke 10, the Lord has sent out the 72, two by two, with instruction about how to travel and behave. He …
This Sunday’s Gospel Has a Word that “Sums up the Whole Message and the Whole Work of Christ.”
Because the Gospel for this 11th Sunday after Pentecost concerns the miraculous healing of a man’s deafness and inability to talk, before I drill into the Sunday passage and risk losing most of you because I go on and on …
Why and For What Am I Doing What I Am Doing?
My apologies for a rather briefer offering for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, although I have in my mind’s eye an image of you doing a fist pump while exclaiming, “yesssss”. This is in part a gesture of self-defense. In …
Is Idolatry Less Serious Now Than Back in Old Testament Times?
Let us be swift. In the Gospel reading for this 9th Sunday after Pentecost, we hear that the Lord was getting closer to Jerusalem. What you should remember is that He was making His triumphal “Palm Sunday” entrance seated like …
8th Sunday after Pentecost: We will see the end of all this and Christ will see us through.
This week’s task is scary. The Gospel for this 8th Sunday after Pentecost presents probably the most difficult of the Lord’s parables to explicate. This week we hear the Parable of the Unjust Steward from Luke 16. Context: For the …
When Life Gives You Manure, Maybe it’s Time for Changes
With this 7th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo Holy Church began a series of contrasts. She shows us the difference between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, between the divine and the mundane. Context …
God Makes Great Things Happen with Small Means
As I write, it is the anniversary of the imposition of Traditionis custodes, certainly the legacy document of the Francis pontificate. While it seems, ultimately, destined for dusty irrelevance, it is now a neuralgic sign of the times. Almost by …
Don’t Look Down
The context of Sunday’s Gospel passage is one of the most powerful moments in the New Testament, the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord, in His Sermon, set up a series of contrasts between how thing were under the Law …
“The ‘Apokalypsis’ of the Sons of God”
Entropy, in physics, describes the measure of disorder. In the entire universe there is a rise in disorder as, slowly but surely, energy dissipates. You know how this works in daily life. When your ice cube melts, heat, energy, goes …