IT’S TIME TO BECOME A POSITIVE INFLUENCE IN AN EXTREMELY POLARIZED CHURCH AS WE APPROACH THE TIME OF TRANSITION

There are a couple of things I have read in the last two days which indicates that the polarization in the Church caused by the highest authority in the Church is recognized on both sides of the divide (more than one I think) in the Church.

In a longer commentary, John Allen, no traditionalist himself, formerly of the National Catholic Reporter and now of middle of the road “Crux” writes this:

At some point, the church too will face a decision about who should lead it next, and it’s not at all clear there’s any greater reason to believe consensus will prevail in Catholicism than in the Italian parliament. At the moment, Catholic opinion appears sharply divided between ardent supporters of Pope Francis and embittered critics, and the level of rancor expressed in both public and private between those two camps is often alarming.

And then this from a “reform of the reform” guy who is throwing in the towel:

A Reform-of-the-Reform Paladin Throws in the Towel

Asking present-day clergy to respect the liturgy of the Church is a waste of time: with an obstinacy often coupled with a profound lack of culture, those who occupy the places from which they are supposed to teach, go before, and lead the faithful - at all levels in the Church, from the pope to the simple parish priest - seem to want to systematically sabotage divine worship in a way that remains completely incomprehensible.

My comments:  There is only one sane way to go and that is to be a truly traditional Catholic, while befuddled, who respect the papacy and do nothing to denigrate that institution or the men who fill the office despite feet of clay. 

As theology goes, it is perfectly permissible and obedient for a Catholic to side with the theologies of Joseph Ratzinger, priest, bishop, cardinal, pope and pope emeritus. 

His theology of truly respecting and interpreting Vatican II and all its documents to include Sacramentum Concilium within the context of “reform in continuity” will prevent the need to side with any group separate from the papacy in any future schism. And Pope Benedict was intellectually savvy enough to know that much of Vatican II is pastoral, time constrained, not set in stone and capable of being adjusted just as Vatican II adjusted the Council of Trent. 

Thus we respect the pope and our local bishops and we move forward with the Ordinary Form of the Church and our parishes doing the best we can to provide transcendent, reverent liturgies, devotions and Catholic spiritualities to our people as well as solid catechesis and support for new movements like home schooling communities and others striving the live Catholicism in a hostile world and church. 

ARE THE SEX ABUSE INVESTIGATIONS AND FINDINGS BEING USED AS A RED HERRING FOR RADICAL REFORMS IN THE CHURCH’S SACRAMENTAL SYSTEM?

Cardinal Marx insists that he is ashamed of his role and the role of other bishops faulted for the manner in which they handled disordered priests which enabled and exacerbated the sex abuse scandal that is probably the single most disastrous aspect of the Church’s leadership leading to so many Catholics enraged and alienated from the Church and leaving in droves. Pope Benedict as Cardinal Ratzinger in the early 70’s is also implicated in a disastrous pastoral approach of accompanying disordered priests in his German archdiocese. 

Do we need to overhaul the entire Church because of the failure of bishops in managing their priests properly, recruiting candidates for the seminary properly and providing oversight to their formation in the seminary and supervision of them once ordained and placed in parishes? 

No—we need to overhaul Episcopal leadership and make sure they follow canon law, common sense and the faith and morals of the Catholic Church applied in the most auspicious manner to themselves and their priests. 

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out!

I do believe lay involvement in the selection, formation and supervision of priests is also necessary, but not micro management. 

When I was vocation director, I had a small group of trusted laity help me to interview candidates applying to our diocese. They would write a report of their interaction with them so I could take that into consideration. We also relied upon psychological reports and also summer assignments where I asked pastors to ask one or two laity in the parish to offer their thoughts on the candidate that spent the summer in their parish, usually lay staff. 

I have to say too, that seminary evaluations I received for our candidates were not helpful at all and other missed serious problems that only became evident when a seminarian spent the summer or a pastoral year in a parish. 

Once ordained, perhaps there should be a canonical way to allow presidents of pastoral councils the ability to speak directly with the bishop if concerns about the morality/intellectual capacity or pastoral abilities of the pastor or any priests and deacons assigned to there parish are a source of division, scandal or abuse to to any of the laity. 

Do we need to overhaul the entire sacramental system of the Church as progressives have been wanting to do according the the spirit of Vatican II and what Protestants have disastrously done in their communions? NO!

The more Catholic we become the better. And clericalism needs to be correctly named for what it is and that is an abuse of authority by manipulating people into thinking what is wrong is right and what was right in the past is now wrong!

GIVE ME CLIMATE WARMING ANY DAY!

 The high today in Richmond Hill, Georgia is a bone chilling and windy 46 degrees—southerners are not made for this nor Italians born in Naples, Italy where the climate there is similar to Georgia’s and yes, they get cold too which I learned rather quickly there!

THIS IS MY FIRST TASTE OF HELL THAT I  EXPERIENCED IN NAPLES, ITALY DURING THE WINTER OF 1954/55; GIVE ME HEAT ANY DAY!

IS IT TIME TO ACCOMPANY THOSE WHO DEFORM THE ORDINARY FORM FUNERAL MASS BACK TO WHAT THE ORDINARY FORM FUNERAL MASS SHOULD BE?

 

I want to be careful here, because emotions are raw. I did not watch the entire funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s of the fallen police officer. I understand the emotions and outpouring of grief and outrage concerning the lawlessness and disrespect shown to law enforcement today and that this is a political football and I agree with conservative politics on this as my brother was in law enforcement for most of his life and his son, my nephew, is currently in law enforcement and now with the ATF. 

But politicized grief doesn’t belong in a Catholic Church or funeral Mass—the politicization of a funeral. 

How much better if the Chants in the vernacular from the 1974 Graduale Romanum would have been used—do the Funeral Liturgy the Church has give us in the Ordinary form. How much better not to have any eulogies after the Prayer after Holy Communion which become therapeutic from an emotional and political point of view and completely overwhelm the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass just celebrated. 

How much better to have a homily that focuses exclusively on the Paschal Mystery and how the deceased tried to embrace the gifts of Catholicism and salvation offered to him in his short life including seeking to repent and be reconciled to God and the Church. 

My critique of the Saint Patrick’s funeral is that is veered off the road from the Funeral Liturgy the Church has given us in the ordinary Form. We need to accompany those who provide these kinds of funeral liturgies back to the one the Church has given us in the Ordinary Form.

Eulogies are best offered at the wake and independent of the Vigil Liturgy for the Deceased, given either before or after that liturgical prayer at the funeral home as a part of visitation. 

CRITIQUING TRADITIONALISTS WHO CRITICIZE EVERYTHING POST VATICAN II

 I have consistently told my conservative, traditionalist friends that a traditional pre-Vatican II Catholic always “prayed paid and obeyed.” 

My progressive friends seem to think those three words are denigrating to Catholics. But wait, are they?

1. Catholics must be people of prayer and Catholic spirituality. And truly Catholic spirituality is really spiritualities. There are many forms of it. Nothing nasty or denigrating here.

2. Catholics must be people of good and sacrificial stewardship, giving generously of their time, talent and treasure as a gift or sacrificial offering to God. Nothing nasty or denigrating here.

3. Catholics must obey God and the Church God the Son founded. Catholics love and respect all people and honor the institutions of Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony which are sacraments.  In terms of obeying Church authority, be it a pope or bishop, we are asked to obey them in the areas of faith, morals and cannon law acknowledging the Supreme Pontiff and all that this means in the areas of faith, morals and canon law but in continuity with Scripture and Tradition. We recognize too that there is not to be blind obedience in all things and we don’t check our brains or free-will at the doors of the Church. And we can disagree with any pope who pontificates on the weather, immigration specifics and when he disagrees with another pope, Summorum Pontificum verses Traditionis Custodis. We are free to have our own takes on that but we are not free to rebel in authoritative administrative decisions of any pontiff or bishop in union with him.

Where my traditional friends veer off the road of Catholicism is their antipathy and disrespect shown to the Ordinary Form of the Mass and other Sacraments which are valid, can be beautifully celebrated and are the experience and Lex Orandi of the majority of Catholics who still attend Mass throughout the world.

Where my progressive friends veer off the road completely is their critique of the beauty, ethos and micro managing rubrics of the EF Mass and its vestments, in particular the traditional altar and altar arrangement, maniples, ornate chasubles, and ad orientem as well as kneeling for communicants who receive exclusively on the tongue without saying amen. 

Can we have our own tastes in liturgical chants, hymns and motets? Yes and taste is a factor. But the bishops need to be more pro-active in excluding some styles of music at Mass as well as giving imprimaturs to the words that are sung, are these orthodox or heterodox or outright heretical? 

Today, we must focus on the Ordinary Form of the Mass, training priests properly which means forbidding a Father Eugene Walsh approach to the liturgy which he promoted in the 70’s and 80’s, God rest his soul.

The priest and adjunct personnel in the video from Sacred Heart in Venice, Florida are of Walsh’s school of liturgy but on steroids. But that is how my generation and maybe a subsequent generation were taught and formed to celebrate the Mass and in their mind properly formed!

We need to call this out today and forbid it! We need to accompany them back to Ordinary Form liturgical sanity. Read the black, do the red and create beautiful, transcendent and reverent liturgies in continuity with the older books. 

Simple, no?

PETS ARE NOT PEOPLE AND PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PETS

I saw this image on Facebook and I think it is morally corrupt and supports Pope Francis' theory about how pets are becoming more important to people than having children.

Pope Francis created a brouhaha when he complained about married couples of child rearing years choosing not to have children but to have pets instead. He was referring to the demographic winter of western cultures, Europe being primary.

 

I have been the master of pets I have had, only two as a priest, a dog and a cat but we had pets growing up who lived in the home with us. They are like family, but they are not human beings. When their age or illness becomes too burdensome on us or them or expensive, putting them to sleep is the best way to go. 

 

The door mat I post above is for sale. It is morally wrong. Pets are not people and people are more important than pets even guests to one's home, invited or not. Put you troublesome pet away when having guests if the pet is bothering or a nuisance to the visitor. Hospitality anyone?

 

CATHOLICS OF ALL STRIPES MUST RESPECT THE NORMATIVE MASS OF THE LATIN RITE AND THIS ESPECIALLY MEANS THOSE WHO ATTEND IT EXCLUSIVELY

 

On another post by Fr. MJK, he writes the following: “The problem isn’t the Novus Ordo.” I would agree with that statement. The problem is with the priests and communities who manipulate it and the video in the Diocese of Venice which I posted, is a case in point and unfortunately not an exception. It’s this type of manipulation of the Missal and avoiding saying the black and doing the red which leads to many who just want a normative Mass without surprises realizing that depending on the parish or a particular priest in a parish, the Novus Ordo is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get.

Priests who celebrate the EF Mass today do so well, un-rushed and with fidelity to the black and red. It is this consistency from Mass to Mass and celebrant to celebrant which attracts those who want to know and experience the Mass in a consistent way.

But, built into the Novous Ordo is the possility of ad libbing at various points and that is in the red. The other problem with the NO is it’s flimsy rubrics which allows for a lot of interpretation and usually what liturgists suggest takes more importance than what the red says to do.

One problem, though, with the vernacular Mass compared to the Latin Mass even in the Ordinary Form, is ad libbing the language by priests admitting to doing it and thinking their wording is better than what is prescribed. That can’t happen in Latin unless the priest actually uses Latin as his vernacular, which no priest does.

I personally love the Modern Mass and the relatively new and glorious English translation of it. Although I celebrate the EF Mass and feel privileged to do so, a little Latin goes a long way for me. 

Music in the NO can have too much latitude and when choirs or ensembles sing up front, it comes off as entertainment. The affectivity of those in the Mass in Venice, Florida by the choir, commentator and priest is intolerable for me and I would have to leave a Mass like that as staying would be an occasion of mortal sin for me. 

Except for our chapel where daily Mass is ad orientem in the Ordinary Form, all the Ordinary Form Masses in the main church are facing the people. We have both genders as readers and altar servers and as Communion Ministers. 

Those things are not of concern to me unless there is no proper training of altar servers and sloppiness reigns even with the simplified duties they have in the NO. 

I do think that the bishop should be aware that the NO is celebrated ad orientem and that it isn’t imposed on people without proper explanation and Mass facing the people is the norm, meaning a Sunday or daily Mass ad orientem is the exception. 

I do think the dress of lay ministers is a problem and a distraction to many especially causal clothes or less than modest attire. 

There are things that can improve the Ordinary Form directed by the local bishop. Expecting the priest to read the black and do the red is a beginning point. Attention to detail is another help with specifics about those details and the proper dress of lay servers. I think albs for lectors and Communion Ministers isn’t to much to suggest and it would solve so much in the area of dress. 

THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, AKA, NATIONAL CHISMATIC REPORTER, OUTDOES ITSELF IN ABSOLUTE STUPIDITY!

 

This is what a rag of a paper thinks the Pope Emeritus should do and uses an example that in and of it self should get those who wrote the commentary fired.

They compare the outrage in the entire Church, progressive and traditional, orthodox and heterodox, to the actual sexual abuse a now defrocked cardinal committed and in the most heinous way, to conservative Catholics trying to understand (and cut some slack) then Cardinal Ratzinger’s handling of four disordered priests and doing what almost every bishop in the Church of that period did and more than likely Pope Francis when he was a bishop and archbishop. So, NCR, you had better be careful in what you propose!

Talk about mixing apples and oranges:

Conservative Catholic commentators who have railed against sexual abuse in the church since the 2018 uncovering of abuse by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick seem torn when leaders of their ideological persuasion, such as Benedict and Pope John Paul II, are implicated. Some have brushed off the allegations against Benedict as just one of many made by many church leaders of that generation.

Editorial: In penance for mishandled abuse cases, Benedict needs to give up 'pope emeritus'

Jan 27, 2022

by NCR Editorial Staff

 

WOW! JUST WOW! AND IT IS ANGLICAN

 This is a new Anglican Church in North Carolina. They have no phobia concerning an attached altar. I like everything about this new construction and no OCDness here. I would change nothing, except, celebrating a valid Mass here with an actual ordained priest. 

I think the triptych, perhaps redesigned would look lovely in my church, Saint Anne’s. If anyone wants to be our patron or benefactor, let me know. 

A Taste of the North of Europe in North Carolina: A Project by Cram and Ferguson

by Shawn Tribeon January 27, 2022

WHEN THE MASS SUFFERS FROM BROMIDROSIS AND HALITOSIS AND THE DIAGNOSIS ISN’T THAT BUT PRIESTS WHO CELEBRATE AD ORIENTEM OR ORIENTUM, TAKE YOUR PICK…

 Let’s pretend that a young man goes to his doctor and describes to him the symptoms that he thinks he has. He says to his doctor that he thinks he has bromidrosis  and halitosis. After his thorough examination of his patient, the doctor returns and say that his problem is that he attends the EF Mass and prefers Mass ad orientem or, as one bishop spells it, orientum. 

What stinks is a Mass like this. Why would the bishop of the Diocese of Venice think that the problem with the Mass in his diocese is priests who celebrate the normative Mass ad orientem or as he spells it, orientum? 

There’s a pathology in the Church today and it stinks to high heaven! The affectivity of all involved in this production from the person who introduces this Mass, to the folk group to the priest shows that Mass facing the people becomes an acting job for those acting. 

There is nothing transcendent, prayerful or even approaching what the true art of celebrating the normative Mass entails. That we even have to use the term “art of celebrating” to improve the normative Mass tells you something. 

If this Mass remained with its silly music but the priest ad orientem, what an improvement that would be!

KUDOS TO THE ARCHDIOCESE OF MILWAUKEE FOR EMPHASIZING THE PROPER TEACHING OF SCIENCE AND BIOLOGY AS WELL AS CATHOLIC TEACHING, BY WORD AND DEED!

 I copy this title from the schismatic and heretical National Catholic Reporter which is often referred to as the National Chismatic Reporter or NCR. I doubt that the editorial policy of this heretical rag would agree with science or biology let alone Catholic teaching on gender and what comprises it, but here you have it:

Milwaukee Archdiocese takes aim at trans persons in sweeping new policy

IT’S ALL VERY SAD AND SHAMEFUL AND YES, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

 I feel bad for Pope Emeritus Benedict at the age of 95 walking back something he stated as true but it wasn’t. At least as prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and as pope he moved things forward in the proper handling of disordered priests and punishing them. 

We know that bishops of the period of the Church up until 2002 in this country were encouraged to send priests who sexually abused anyone, even children, to treatment facilities so they could be rehabilitated and placed back into ministry. I would venture to say that most bishops throughout the world followed this method. They  also shuffled them to new dioceses for a fresh start. 

It is also true that there does not seem to be an equal concern for victims and would-be victims. This is the greater scandal in my mind but both aspects walk hand in hand.  I think we can understand the ideology of accompaniment and rehabilitation (which Pope Francis continues to support in other areas) but find it less understandable that there was little or no concern for victims—this aspect of the scandal needs to be address and yes, I would say it was clericalism and a result of a “closed system” of clericalism. 

But I doubt any bishop of the period of Pope Benedict’s time as a bishop prior to become pope could be found completely “clean” under the same type of investigation and scrutiny he and German bishops have undergone.

I suspect there may be some skeletons in Pope Francis’ closet very similar to Benedicts and there is a current bishop, the first bishop Pope Francis appointed as pope, under scrutiny for abusing seminarians only to have been removed from South America by the pope and given a cushy job in the Vatican. It’s all a part of the same cloth, no?

We know, though, that the Extraordinary Form is not the greatest source of division in the Church, but bishops and popes themselves, who are at the foundation of this horrible scandal which continues to engulf the Church, destroy her credibility and push Catholics to the brink and beyond of becoming “nones.” 

Yet, EF Catholics are censured which is another form of spiritual abuse. 

Pope Benedict’s correction to the Munich abuse report sparks a debate among German Catholics

HO HUM—POPE INSTALLS MALE AND FEMALE LECTORS AND CATECHISTS

 In the heady days after Vatican II there was great excitement about lay ministries and declericalizing priests by clericalizing laity, usually women. I must say that some of the most “clerical” people I have experienced in the Church aren’t priests and deacons, but laity protecting their turf. 

But I digress.

Let me be clear, I have no problem with lay leadership and consulting laity. I have hired quite of few over the years and have always had more women in leadership roles as volunteers then men but also paid.

I have no problem with girl or boy altar servers or adult men and women taking on the role. 

But, ho hum for most Catholics today who still bother to attend Mass, the 5% to 25% of Catholics who do. Are they truly excited, inspired and motivated in their Catholicism by what Pope Francis did on Sunday installing the first ever female lectors in what had been reserved for men? NO, they aren’t excited and could care less, but maybe one or two do find it exhilarating. 

And thus the genius of the EF Mass—people there just want Christ and to experience Him in a mystical way for their eternal salvation. And they take their faith seriously enough to go to Confession regularly, procreate like rabbits, to quote Pope Francis, and to strive to make their homes the Church in miniature and to help the poor as best they can by showing charity at home and to others. 

Lay ministries don’t excite Catholics anymore nor novelties in the Church—that’s a 1960’s phenomenon and most from the 60’s who were thrilled by it then are dead now, or nones or in memory care units. 

Ho hum…Just saying. 

WOW! JUST WOW! NO OCDNESS COMPLAINTS HERE EXCEPT…

 I wish the cathedra did not face the nave in a confrontational fashion. Better to be more angled toward the altar.

The co Cathedral of Pensacola-Tallahassee, congratulations to Bishop Wach:

The reredos and freestanding altar appear as one unit and no additional altar placed higher attached to the Reredos. Tabernacle central again!

Read the story here: Before and After: The Co-Cathedral of St Thomas More in Tallahassee

by Lucas Viaron January 25, 2022Architecture

THE POPE’S PET BROUHAHA POINTS TO THE PROBLEM OF POPE FRANCIS, JUDGEMENTALISM AND NEGATIVITY IN HIS MODUS OPERANDI

America Magazine, a Jesuitical publication, offers an apologetic for Pope Francis off-the cuff remark about people who choose pets over children and thus are responsible for the “demographics winter in the Western world.” Yes, he who says he can’t judge homosexual acting out in the priesthood just judged pet owners who choose not to have children, presumably heterosexual pet owners who are married!

This is a quote from the America article’s author with my commentary below:

Pope Francis caused a Category 5 brouhaha on Jan. 6 during what was an otherwise thoroughly ordinary general audience at the Vatican. During the pope’s catechesis that day, which was focused on St. Joseph, Francis ranked adoptive parenthood as “among the highest forms of love.” So far, so good. But then, in an offhand comment, the pope seemed to suggest that adults who opt for pets instead of children are selfish and are part of the reason for a demographic winter in the Western world, in which pet ownership is increasing at a faster rate than childbirth.

I wrote “seemed to suggest” because what the pope said was more nuanced and, to my mind, entirely reasonable. First, as my colleagues at the “Jesuitical” podcast have pointed out, the pope was not suggesting that people who have pets and do not have children are selfish. Many childless people cannot have children, or they choose not to have children because they lack the means to care for them properly. Francis was not talking about them. The pope’s point was that people who have the means to have children and instead choose to have only pets are exhibiting what he called a “denial of fatherhood or motherhood” that “diminishes us; it takes away our humanity.”

My comments: In fact, the pope’s off-the-cuff remarks have consistently gotten him into hot water with some but also causes great pleasure among others. 

This pope is very negative in judging certain actions and people and often resorts to name calling although masked as humor, but the ugliness of the remark is at a foundational level and often quite mean-spirited. 

Without naming any group of people who don’t have children, and there are many who choose not to do so and preference for pets is but one category, His Holiness could have praised the prophetic nature of Pope Saint Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae and given statistics about the demographic winter in the west. But then, he should have praised and held up as a model, those fundamentalist, rigid Catholics, who are psychologically incapacitated and thus judged to be thrown to the margins, as willing to have many children during their fertile years, like those rigid people who love the TLM, or Ordinary Form Catholics who want the reform of the reform, are orthodox and those other Catholics in “New Movements” who procreate all over the place. He could have praised these Catholics. But no, he slams poor couples who choose Pets rather than children and who more than likely are oblivious to the Church’s teaching on sexuality and the evil of artificial contraception because this papacy and his magisterium never speaks about the perennial teachings of the Church on natural law, sexuality and Humanae Vitae. 

MY OCDNESS BROUGHT MY EYES IN A LASSER FASHION TO THE PROBLEM WITH THE RESTORATION WHICH THUS IS THAT DANG FLY IN THE OINTMENT!

 This is how a church in Ohio looked prior to a post Vatican II wreckovation that wasn’t horrible, but a wreck nonetheless less:

Before:

After: The the post Vatican II wreckovation came that wasn’t horrible but the magnificent reredos and pre-Vatican II altar were removed and presumably destroyed:

After/After: Then sanity and money returned and we have this beautiful restoration, but with that all corrupting fly in the ointment. More on that below the photo:

I suspect the added reredos is a new creation but based upon the original unless they stored the original in the basement, which I highly doubt. The major fly in the ointment, though, is that the new reredos/alar is too tall and hides the painting or mural of the crucifixion scene above it. That is not the case with the pre-Vatican II look! Why create something new and not measure its height properly????

 They could have omitted the attached high altar,  lowered the reredos  which would make the free standing altar look as though it and the reredos are one unit. 

Maybe for the future an altar railing could be restored that would help. 

But overall, I would say that the first renovation could have been much worse and isn’t horrible although the high altar/reredos were removed and the altar railing—destructive and thus deserving the name wreckovation and an act of “desecration” against art. 

The after/after is nice, but the major mistake or fly in the ointment is that the new reredos hides the crucifixion painting. That should not have happened!

You can read the story of the after/after here:

Before and After: St. Joseph's Church in Ohio

by Shawn Tribeon January 18, 2

HOLY FATHER, IT ISN’T 1960’S–STOP DEMONIZING THAT WHICH NO LONGER EXISTS IN ORDER TO PROMOTE THAT WHICH YOU WISH

 

We know that Pope Francis is quite nostalgic for the Church of the 1960’s and 70’s, the Church of his youth and heyday.

To promote the new and improved it was important to denigrate the old and useless back then. Of course, this is the theology of rupture with what preceded Vatican II which Pope Benedict knew so well and a problem he diagnosed so well. He was in no way nostalgic for that transitory past. 

But not so Pope Francis. He’s still fighting what he perceived to be a 1960’s problem in the Church using the same method in 2022! Incredible. 

Back in the 1960’s the hierarchy, the priests and the religious who were a part of the “spirit” of Vatican II seized the moment to promote their vision of the Church unshackled by the rigidity, clarity and so-call triumphalism of the past, the immediate past that was still in their present and in the majority of CAtholics who attended Mass, meaning about 90% of Catholics at that time. 

To manipulate them into accepting that which was a new religion to them, they had to be shamed and humiliated into giving up what they were being told malformed them, made them individualistic and concerned little about the poor and social justice and being social justice warriors, breaking into military posts and damaging nuclear warheads and the like, those who did that weren’t rigid or traditional, but revolutionists that every Catholic had to follow but first they had to shed their Catholicism of the pre-Vatican II Church.

Thus in today’s homily at St. Peter’s, installing lay men and women in the new formal ministries of Lectors and Catechists, the Pope uses 1960’s language against those incredibly obstinate Catholics who still, after more than 60 years, still prefer to the older liturgy and the Church as she was. 

How many are there of this kind  of Catholic out of all the Catholics in the world today who still practice their Faith and go to Mass regularly? I would venture to guess less than 1% today compare to 99% in 1970. Yet you would think by listening to the pope that this less than 1% of Catholics are the real problem in 2022! This is the alternate 1960’s universe of the Vatican today.

The purple quote below from Vatican News is what the pope decried today, Sunday, January 23, 2022, not a Sunday in January in 1968. In once sense, what the pope asks is what the majority of Catholics do both individually and within post Vatican II parishes, even those that are exclusively EF parishes or a combination of both. But he acts as though the majority of Catholics are still like the 1960’s Church, making a transition to the new with many unwilling to do so. Is that the case today? This is what I heard in the late 60’s and in my 1970’s seminary. But that isn’t the Church of today, on life support with only 5% to 20% of Catholics attending Mass and 99% of those not rigid but clinging to anything new and different. Most Catholics who are not “nones” have joined non-denominational churches, other Protestants or other religions, that’s how flexible they are.

Pope Francis denounced the temptation to rigidity in the Church, which he described as a "perversion" and an "idol," a kind of modern "pelagianism" that does not change us. The word of God, he explained, does change us; it challenges and disturbs us, so that we will not remain indifferent to the sufferings of this world, which fall disproportionately on the poor. It “urges us to act, to combine worship of God and care for men and women.”

He also spoke out against a kind of "angelic spirituality" as another temptation the Church faces today -- a temptation to a certain "gnosticism" that proposes a word of God that is out of touch with reality. Instead, the word of God is meant to become flesh in Christians, in the concrete circumstances of everyday life, so that Christians might no longer be indifferent, but creative and prophetic in their outreach to their brothers and sisters.

I’ve been ordained for more than 42 years and worked in a variety of parishes in that time. What is said in the purple above does not describe any parish I have been associated with nor my pre-Vatican II experiences of parishes in Atlanta and Augusta. 

Do you know of any parishes or Catholics like this today?

A BLIND GUIDE

Archbishop Roche, the Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship gave a rather incredible interview which shows that he really is confused and quite ignorant about which Mass causes more problems for the Church. You can read the full article HERE. 

But here are some quotes from the article with my commentary in red:

The promotion of the pre-Vatican II liturgy as somehow more holy or prayerful than the current liturgy "is not basically a liturgical problem, it is an ecclesial problem," the archbishop said. The current Mass, with a richer selection of prayers and Scripture readings, reflects and reinforces the church's understanding of itself as the people of God.

Where do I begin. Yes, I agree that the post Vatican II Mass does have a richer selection of prayer and Scripture readings and various Masses for various needs, votive and otherwise. But then the Archbishop engages in an act of self referential double talk. He says the “current” Mass “reinforces the Church’s understanding of itself as the people of God.” And there in is one of the problems, the horizontal becomes more important than the vertical. Ecclesiology becomes more important than Christology. Of course it isn’t either/or but both/and but Christ is first, the personal relationship that Christ as to each individual and that individual with Christ comes first. And flowing from that and always second is the communal, the ecclesiastical if you will and the institutional is third. 

Why so many love the Traditional Mass of the Ages is because it is so Christological, so reverent and to them from a emotional or visceral point of view, it enables them to experience, taste and see the holiness of God in a more contemplative, prayerful way. The new Mass with some slight EF adjustments (continuity here) could do the exact same thing—but Archbishop Roche, refuses to see or acknowledge that. The old is bad the new is good. Incredible thinking and tragic too!

Obviously, people have preferences, the archbishop said. But Catholics need to look more deeply at what they are saying when they express those preferences.

"When people say, 'Well, I'm going to Father So-and-So's Mass,' well Father So-and-So is only the agent. It is Christ who is active in the Mass, it is the priest who acts in 'persona Christi' -- the person of Christ, the head of the church," he said.

"When we go to Mass, even when the music perhaps isn't something that we would personally choose — and again, this is individualism coming in — then we've got to realize that we are standing at the side of Christ on his cross, who gives everything back to the Father through this Eucharist," Archbishop Roche said.

The Mass makes present "everything that Christ did for our salvation; not simply for, you know, Jim's salvation or Mary's salvation, but for our salvation," he said. "We are the church. We are not individuals. We belong to a body that defines itself through the teachings of Christ which we have received in faithfulness, and which we should, in faithfulness, also carry out in order to create that unity and to create that harmony."

The “Balkinization of the Mass” is not a pre-Vatican II phenomena but a post-Vatican II phenomena. And yes, it is about post-Vatican II Catholics wanting their type of music, folk, gospel, contemporary, neo-traditional or Latin or Vernacular chant or no music at all. And let’s throw in my language, English, Spanish, Chinese and you name it and I will go to my Mass in my language with music I like and a priest who has a great personality, makes me laugh and makes me feel like he’s talking to me….—that isn’t the Pre-Vatican II Mass or Church’s issue! It is the post Vatican II Mass and Church that had caused this “individualism and congregationalism!”

Archbishop Roche needs to get out of the Vatican and go incognito to your typical Sunday Mass in your typical parish anywhere in the world and he will see what his ideology has done not only to the Mass of the post-Vatican II Church but also a Church which worships ecclesiology and being God’s people over Christ and what God does!

I am not opposed to the new Mass and I have written below that it would be best to have one liturgy for the Church again, one that has the so-called “richness” of the modern Missal but the spiritual, prayerful and reverence richness of the older books. Worshipping the people of God, ecclesiology, Vatican II is a post-Vatican II heresy and it has caused the nuclear winter of the Church not the triumphalism of the self-proclaimed springtime of a renewed Church that the babel of Vatican II could not and cannot create in its most self-reverential way!

THIS IS A FASCINATING PHOTO FROM VATICAN NEWS

 Lutherans kneeling for Communion and ministers wearing black vestments. 

Rev . Mari Valjakka, pastor of Sami at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland 

OVER THE NEXT SIX MONTHS, I WILL HAVE SOME VERY NOSTALGIC POSTS….

 

Don’t ask me why I am doing this as all will be revealed in due time, but here’s my first nostalgic post. It is from October 31, 2009 and the very first post of this most humble hobby of mine, the Southern Order’s blog. 

I got seven comments on it and I thought to myself, self, how did anyone know that I had initiated the Southern Order’s blog and why would anyone read it?!? 

And yet they did and at one point more than 20,000 souls from around the globe would look at it in a single day!

How does that happen and I often wondered and still do that this is all virtual and that no one looks at it and all the comments and statistics are self-generated by some cruel, sadistic computer in the Soviet Union!

But here’s my very first Southern Orders post. I even did not know how to post a photo with this post!

Press title for the actual post and access to the comments:

All Hallows’ ' Eve, All Hallows and All Souls

The Extraordinary and Ordinary

This weekend I have the privilege to celebrate both forms of the Catholic Mass. The regular or normal form in the vernacular has such a noble simplicity that allows people to enter the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist with ease and serenity. The Extraordinary Form with its complex form, ethereal ambiance and choreographed glory helps the soul to soar to grand heights of spirituality. Thank God for Pope Benedict XVI who has allowed for the liberal use of the Extraordinary Mass and thus diversity in the Church's liturgical lexicon. 

THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE OF POPE FRANCIS…

 

Rocco Palma in a tweet opines that the quote below from Pope Francis to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith implies that the Holy Father is still miffed about the tone of the letter from them saying the Church can’t bless homosexual or LGBTQetc, etc, etc, unions because the Church can’t bless sin. 

KEEP IN MIND THAT THAT LETTER FROM THE CDF LIKE THE DUBIA ON THE TLM CARRIED THE IMPRIMATUR OF POPE FRANCIS!

That is Palma’s commentary and I don’t see that being implied especially in a letter, like the cruel, harsh and disrespectful “dubia” from Archbishop Roche concerning the TLM, both having the approval of Pope Francis. 

And that’s my cynical commentary. Custodius Traditionis and its subsequent dubia fly in the very face of what Pope Francis delivers in his elocution to the former office of the Inquisition. Rocco Palma would do well to make a commentary on the alternate universe of Pope Francis’ Church which can’t see the disconnect in what he says to the CDF and what His Holiness and the CDW did to Catholics who prefer the TLM. 

The Holy Father’s quote above, though, is an eloquent pro-life statement and His Holiness is to be applauded on that aspect of the quote above.

INTERESTING “BEFORE” AND “AFTER” DISCUSS…

 This is a Lutheran Church. Their traditional liturgy is more Catholic than our modern liturgy. In other words it is more Tridentine in order and ethos. Their only  problem, and it is a big only, is they don’t believe Holy Orders is a Sacrament (only two Sacraments, Baptism and Communion). But they forget that to have a valid “Communion” you must have a valid Sacrament of Holy Orders, especially priests and bishops. 

But what they feign is pretty good at times from the “movie” point of view.

But someone actually opined that in St. Anne’s little Puritan chapel that went through the RCIA and was baptized, Confirmed and made Eucharistic in its Catholic conversion in 1955, it was wrong to place in it a Catholic altar, a tabernacle with vigil lamp and a San Damiano crucifix with ornate, Italianate altar frontal.Why? Because the chapel is or was Puritan. You can’t make this stuff up! But anyway:

Before:

After: 

DIABOLICAL

 

MORE EVIDENCE FROM ITALY THAT ROME’S ASSESSMENT THAT TRADITIONALISTS ARE THE LITURGICAL PROBLEM IN THE CHURCH IS IN FACT DELUSIONAL

 I can’t post the video directly to my blog but you can see it at the Facebook link HERE.

It is a present day clown Mass, no? And this clown Mass with a Bishop no less was in Italy too just a couple of years ago:

A COUPLE OF COOL GRAPHS

 Of course, if the Congregation for Divine Worship gets its way, they will all need to follow Sacrosanctum Concilium and the post-Vatican II revision of the Liturgy since the Latin Rite as we know it post-Vatican II is how we are to walk together in a synodal Church--I am embarrassed even writing this and yet this seems to be the mentality we are living through!

DOES YOUR CHURCH HAVE THE GLORIOUS BENEDICTINE ALTAR ARRANGEMENT? OR IS IT JUST BLAH?