To the Razor’s Edge: ‘Father’ Zuhlsdorf leads Souls into Temptation by promoting lewd Video Ad

Because ‘masculinity’, see!

To the Razor’s Edge: ‘Father’ Zuhlsdorf leads Souls into Temptation by promoting lewd Video Ad

Years ago ‘Fr.’ John Zuhlsdorf was a big name in the world of conservative Novus Ordos and so-called “indult” traditionalists, that is, those in the Vatican II Church who still took Catholicism seriously and wanted to assist at the Traditional Latin Mass in “full communion” with Joseph Ratzinger (“Pope Benedict XVI”) and later Jorge Bergoglio (“Pope Francis”).

Starting out as a columnist writing about ecclesiastical Latin for The Wanderer, ‘Father Z’, as he likes to be called, gradually morphed into a blogger whose primary occupation appeared to be, well, blogging.

Zuhlsdorf was (perhaps still is) the quintessential “cool online trad priest” who gave people much-needed balance and relief from the daily Novus Ordo madness they had to deal with. Ordained in Rome by ‘Pope’ John Paul II in 1991, this biretta-wearing blogger is an expert in ecclesiastical Latin and the Traditional Mass, and he has the occasional “inside scoop” from the Vatican to boot.

‘Fr.’ Zuhlsdorf — he was ordained in the doubtful Novus Ordo rite of ordination — seemed to reach his zenith in the early years of Francis’ “pontificate”, when he was the first person people would go to in response to Francis’ scandalous words and actions. As a popular “popesplainer,” Zuhlsdorf was very busy trying to convince the world that the Jesuit from Buenos Aires was not some crazy liberal trying to change Church teaching, and everyone who thought otherwise was simply “misunderstanding” what Francis “really meant”. If only everyone could just “read Francis through Benedict”, all would be well.

We all know how that advice turned out.

It is not clear, to the present writer at least, how much of a “thing” the celebrated ‘Father Z’ still is at this point, especially after his dismissal from the Madison diocese in 2021. Certainly his blog activity and content are not what they used to be when he was at the height of his popularity. He seems to have “settled down” considerably and scaled back the excesses of yesteryear. He has long stopped defending Francis, he is no longer promoting vampire hunters kits, and the content of his blog now seems to be more about religion and theology than about selling coffee or asking people to buy him items on his Amazon wish list.

Every now and then, however, Mr. Zuhlsdorf still likes to push the envelope.

In 2013, he recommended an immoral movie with impure content; in 2014, he drew attention to the “all-important” 42nd anniversary of the movie Deliverance, embedding a video clip that included profanity. Anyone who decided to watch Deliverance on account of Zuhlsdorf’s recommendation (given without any sort of warnings or disclaimers), found that it includes a brutal scene that cries to heaven for vengeance (which we will not elaborate on further). And just last year, the blogging presbyter once again recommended a movie with nudity and profanity, likewise without any kind of advance warning.

This past Sunday, Feb. 19, he did it again. No, he didn’t recommend a movie this time; rather, he featured a video clip on his blog that contains grave immodesty that is probably an occasion of sin for many.

The clip is an advertisement for a company called Jeremy’s Razors. Zuhlsdorf explains first:

The world is beset by wokeism. It’s time to fight back.

The Great Roman™, whose outstanding comments and frequent photos of Rome you regularly enjoy [on this blog], sent me a video which his own son sent to him.

The best commercial I have seen in a long time.

Here’s the commercial.  After the commercial, I’ll have my own commercial.  You’ll like both of them.

(John Zuhlsdorf, “Shave The Great Roman™, Save The World”, Fr. Z’s Blog, Feb. 19, 2023; italics given.)

Zuhlsdorf then embeds the video ad, which we will NOT link to here. (He should have emailed back his “Great Roman” friend and explained to him that such a video clip ought not to be watched, much less promoted, by a Catholic.)

‘Father’ then continues his post:

I used Harry’s Razors [a competitor?]. I dumped them.

I have a proposal.

When The Great Roman™ sent me the video he quipped,

“Too bad they don’t ship outside the US and Canada.”

Folks, I am heading to Rome pretty soon and I could carry over a start kit with a year’s supply of razors.

We’ll worry about next year next year. Let today’s whiskers be sufficient unto the day. We’ll cross those blades when we come to it.

Shave The Great Roman™!  Save the world from wokeism!

I propose that 10 donors each send $9.00 to cover the $79.18 for 1 starter and 1 year supply plus the annoying fees that will be extracted.  Call it $90.00 to keep this simple.

Not satisfied with sending only $9?  Wanna help more?

Please send in multiples of 9 (NINE) so that I know to earmark the donation for this.

“But Father! But Father!” the limp of mind and heart are now pewling, “This smacks of elitist patriarchy!  This is …. toxically masculine and therefore racist and also MYSGENDERINDIFFERENTIST.  This is contrary to VATICAN II and its new tone of reforming Pentecost renewal openness!  What if you get more than the $90?  HUH?  It could happen with the type of people who read your awful blog.   Will you share it with the poor?!?  No!  You’ll use it to hate on Vatican II, won’t you.. because you are a hater and haters have to hate and YOU HATE VATICAN II!”

Here’s what we will do if we get more than $90.

• If we get $90 plus, I’ll throw in something else or buy The Roman a drink in Rome.
• If we get $180, then I’ll use the razors too.  And buy the Roman a drink.
• If we get even more than $180 then the Great Roman™ and I will immediately spend it on bourbon.   It’ll be after Easter after all!
• If even more comes in, it’ll be bourbon and cigars.

You get the drift.  I’ll just keep pushing the progress thermometer up and raising the quality.  If anyone deserves it, it’s The Great Roman™.

In gratitude, donors might get photos dedicated to them, probably details of clean shaven saints from paintings and statues. It’s thematic.

Right now Jeremy’s Razors are on sale, so “battiamo il ferro finché è caldo”!

Fight back against wokeism!  Let’s go!  $9 or a multiple of 9.

(italics and bold print given)

So this is what Mr. Zuhlsdorf is currently spending his time and energy — and wants to spend your money — on.

Yes, of course it is good to fight “wokeism” and to support businesses that do likewise; and yes, we need genuine masculinity more than ever. But worthy businesses should not be supported at the expense of leading people into sin, and real masculinity has nothing to do with razors, cigars, or scotch. As one Twitter user pointed out at the end of last year:

Still, the silly razor thing wouldn’t be nearly so bad if it were simply that. The real problem is that the “best commercial I have seen in a long time”, as Zuhlsdorf writes, contains persistent grave immodesty (women wearing extremely low-cut dresses) in many scenes, enticing men to commit grave sin.

Here are two still shots we have censored:

How any Catholic in his right mind — much less a “traditional Catholic priest”, who hears confessions — could excitedly promote such a video clip, is beyond belief. The immodesty is frequent and persistent — it is not such that if you blink, you miss it. Besides, a still shot of one of the immodest scenes is actually the video’s cover image (thumbnail), so that even if someone merely scrolls through “Fr. Z’s” blog post, without playing the video, he will still see it.

What did our Blessed Lord say?

You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell.

(Matthew 5:27-29)

In addition to the immodesty, the video also contains one scene in which a man very briefly shows the devil’s horns. This is indeed something one might miss if one does not pay very close attention, but we did and so we might as well point it out:

We ask ‘Fr.’ Zuhlsdorf: To what end do you do this? To be cool? To be hip? To keep people clicking? Oh, because in your infinite charity you wanted to grace someone with these must-have, impurity-enticing razors and blades? At the price of how many souls, ‘Father’?

“For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mk 8:36).

There is simply no excuse for this. Especially as a (supposed) traditional Catholic priest, Zuhlsdorf more than anyone knows about the importance of promoting modesty and purity, of keeping souls away from the great danger they are already exposed to in this world of ours, both online and offline. He knows what a horrific evil a single mortal sin is, and how much our Blessed Lord suffered on account of each sin during His most cruel and sorrowful Passion. ‘Father’ knows very well that a single impure thought, if deliberately consented to, can snuff out the life of grace and damn a soul forever. How many vices, how many wrecked lives, begin with a single mortal sin!

Does ‘Fr. Z’ enjoy leading souls — pardon the pun — to the razor’s edge of temptation so he can later tell them, as he likes to do on his blog, to “GO TO CONFESSION!”?

Interestingly enough, anyone who wishes to leave a comment on Zuhlsdorf’s blog post, encounters the following helpful advice:

It is good advice indeed, but it applies even more to the blogger than to the commenter.

Hopefully people will learn one good thing from this tragedy, an important general rule of thumb for doctrinal as well as moral purity:

Stay away from Fr. Z’s Blog!

Image sources: wdtprs.com (screenshots; modified)
Licenses: fair use