SO, IT APPEARS THAT SCIENTIFIC TRUTH ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE IS STRANGER THAN THE SCIENCE FICTION THE MEDIA FOR THE LAST FEW WEEKS HAS BEEN GIVING US ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE!

 

Remember that horrific underwater volcano which erupted and spewed ocean water and other debris into the atmosphere. No you don’t. The media didn’t focus on it because it interferes with Joe Biden and the Democrat’s political agenda for green energy. 

Well, thank to Fr. Z we now have the truth about this summer’s climate change. In all the reporting, reporters are hysterical that it has been hot this summer! DUH! And the recent addition of reporting not just the actual temperature, but what it feels like, which is much higher than the actual temperature, helps them in the great deception.

This is what Fr. Z uses as his source to move us away from the science fiction of the Democrats and media about Climate change to the science fact of science. How marvelous:

This was spotted at American Thinker.

What NASA and the European Space Agency are admitting but the media are failing to report about our current heat wave

The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world’s leading scientific organizations. It turns out that levels of water vapor in the atmosphere have dramatically increased over the last year-and-a-half, and water vapor is well recognized as a greenhouse gas, whose heightened presence leads to higher temperatures, a mechanism that dwarfs any effect CO2 may have.

So, why has atmospheric water vapor increased so dramatically? Because of a historic, gigantic volcanic eruption last year that I – probably along with you — had never heard of. The mass media ignored it because it took place 490 feet underwater in the South Pacific. Don’t take it from me, take it from NASA (and please do follow the link to see time lapse satellite imagery of the underwater eruption and subsequent plume of gasses and water injected into the atmosphere):

Both NASA and the European Space Agency agree that because of the huge amount of water vapor ejected into the atmosphere by that volcano (enough to fill 58K Olympic pools) increasing the atmospheric water load by 13% we will have warmer weather for a couple of years until it dissipates.

My comment: Science fact is stranger than the science fiction of climate change!

SCANDAL! THE AMOUNT OF MONEY SPENT ON RENOVATIONS OF CHURCHES, ESPECIALLY THE RENOVATIONS THAT WERE NOT NEEDED—A DESTRUCTION OF A LITURGICAL PATRIMONY AND A DESIRE TO RECOVER IT

 This is Holy Family Parish in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

The original look with its magnificent altar/reredos:

The first major renovation after Vatican II. One can only imagine how rank and file parishioners felt when their spectacular old altar/reredos was destroyed for this look, a puritanical/Presbyterian look. No wonder so many left the Church in this period which has had a trickle down effect to this day:

Then, there was an attempt to change things once again and it failed and miserably. I prefer the stark look above to this. At least in the first renovation the altar and tabernacle are substantial although ultra modern:

And the current restoration:

WHAT’S UP WITH THESE TRADITIONALISTS AND SINGING?

 

After Sunday’s Ancient Latin Mass in Savannah, the congregation sang “Holy God, We Praise Your Name “ as the recessional. Once I got outside, no one from inside was on my heels as in a typical modern Mass, or in front of me! 

I had to wait in the Savannah hot sun until all the verses were sung and I mean all, until the first person left the church! What’s up with that!?

THE ANCIENT LATIN MASS INSPIRING THE YOUNG AND OLD!

 I baptized the baby I am holding about 19 years ago at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in  Augusta when I was the pastor there. The same baby, now19 years old altar server served Savannah’s Latin Mass with me this Sunday as he was visiting Savannah from Augusta. He is next to me holding the paten at Communion time.  He hasn’t changed, nor I.

By the way, he is the second oldest of 11 children, the youngest just three months old!

9TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST AT SAVANNAH’S SACRED HEART CHURCH—YOURS TRULY CELEBRANT!

 A weekend in the life of an itinerant priest: Saturday 5 pm Vigil Mass at Holy Family Church, Hilton Head Island; 7 AM Mass at St. Gregory the Great Church, Bluffton; 1 pm Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Savannah. Holy Family which seats about 1,000 was almost full, but 3/4ths of the people were tourists to HHI. The 7 AM Mass at St. Gregory’s seats about 800 and it was mostly full with mostly parishsioners, a handful of visitors. The 1 PM Traditional Latin Mass at Sacred Heart is almost full with people from all over who are traditionalists and prefer the ancient Latin Mass over the modern vernacular Mass developed in the mid 1960’s.

On top of all of this I have to prepare two separate homilies for this Sunday.

 I love being retired!

These photos are from Sunday’s 9th Sunday after Pentecost:

SEISMIC CHANGE AT PRAYTELL BLOG!

 

Oh, the humanity of it all! Praytell blog will no longer allow readers’ comments. It’s going back to a simpler format. But no readers’ comments! I suspect most people read that blog’s comments rather than the posts. Maybe they came to realize that? Maybe there’s a backstory to all of this filled with intrigue and film noir plots????? Will we ever know?

Changes at Pray Tell

The blog is moving to a simplified layout, similar to what it had originally, which will make posting easier for contributors. In line with a reduced workload for moderator and student worker, beginning September 1st there will not be readers’ comments at the website. All previous comments since the beginning of the blog in 2010 will remain up. It is not anticipated that the number of posts will be reduced, and in fact it is anticipated that the frequency of posts might increase in coming months and years.

ROBERT MICKENS OF LA CROIX INTERNATIONAL ON POPE FRANCIS’ MESSIAH COMPLEX OR STUBBORNNESS OR DEATH WISH?

 My comments first:

I was in my rectory at St. Joseph Church in Macon watching the television around midday when Pope Francis had been elected and we were awaiting his appearance on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. There was a visiting priest plus the other priests of the parish in the rectory’s TV room plus a local television reporter and cameraman. 

When Pope Francis arrived on the loggia, I was stunned by my visceral reaction. I saw something in his eyes that frightened me. To me it was a look of an authoritarian realizing the ultimate power he had just received that would enable him to do as he pleases and undo what others had pleased. 

Robert Mickens of the NCR clone, La Croix International, named it for me in the excerpt of the article I post below. I did not see stubbornness, though,  I saw a “messianic complex”.

Apart from that, Mickens raises the alarm about the pope traveling so much in the next couple of months. He’s an old man by any standard. Mickens could have raised two other issues along with the messianic complex, stubbornness or both. The two other possibilities are that the Holy Father has a death wish and dying for him is the only way out of the mess His Holiness has created in the Church these past 10 years leading to so much polarization, anxiety, apprehension  and depression. 

Or do his top advisors have a death wish for him and encouraging him to make these long trips to facilitate the end of this papacy? I guess that is better than poison. 

Here is Mickens’ commentary. There may be a paywall if you want to read it all: 

Elderly pope begins his last lap with a youth festival in Portugal

By Robert Mickens

Does Pope Francis have a messianic complex? Or is he just stubborn? Perhaps, neither. But at four-and-a-half months shy of his 87th birthday, and struggling with increasingly declining health, he refuses to slow down. This coming Tuesday (August 2) he will travel, with about 70 journalists on his plane, to Lisbon to preside at World Youth Day (WYD) festivities. It is the first of three international trips that are on his schedule in just the next eight weeks. He's supposed to visit Mongolia (yes, you heard that right -- Mongolia!) from August 31 to September 4 and then make the jaunt up the coast to Marseille, the French port city on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, for a September 23-24 visit. Try La Croix International now for just USD 1 a Month! If I were the pope's doctor, or a close friend and confident (which he, like his recent predecessors, does not seem to have), I would have strongly -- very strongly -- advised him not to make the puddle-jump to the Portuguese capital in the height of Europe's hottest summer on record. And I would have certainly tried to talk him out of doing the long-haul to Mongolia where there are like five Catholics. Ok, there are maybe fifteen hundred. And, yes, this is the pope of the peripheries who wants to shower his love on the "little guy" and refocus the world's attention on the forgotten and insignificant place in the world. But that is not what the trip to Mongolia is about.

Read More

IN THE MODERN NUPTIAL LITURGY, SHOULD THE VOWS BE AD ORIENTEM OR NOT? THAT IS THE QUESTION

 AND JUST WHO SHOULD BE AD ORIENTEM? THE PRIEST OR THE COUPLE?

Rather than writing a long commentary, let these two photos speak thousands of words. Which ad orientem is to be preferred? To be or not to be, that is the question?

THE INTRODUCTORY AND CONCLUDING RITES OF THE MODERN MASS: TO PODIUM OR NOT TO PODIUM; THAT IS THE QUESTION

At Mass in the pope's chapel of the Vatican Motel 6, Pope Francis uses a podium for the Introductory and Concluding Rites of the Mass. This podium, is too tall for my tastes but the podium design is what I would prefer, just lower:

I will admit, I am conflicted. I am seeing more and more a podium placed in front of the celebrant’s cathedra for the Roman Missal to be placed upon it for the Introductory and concluding rites of the Modern Mass, rather than to have an altar server hold the missal.

More and more, I think I would prefer a discreet tasteful podium, meaning not something to overpowering of the priest’s cathedral and not drawing too much attention to itself over an altar server holding the book for me.

So often, when an altar server holds the book, they don’t keep the book still, don’t have it within the parameters of my bi-focal glasses or they are bigger than I am, stand directly in front of me and their backside is all that the people in the nave see. 

Oh, the humanity of it all! I think I prefer a podium to a person! What do you think?

IS THIS A SPIRIT OF VATICAN II WRECKOVATION OR SOMETHING ELSE?

 When I first saw this, I thought it was a post spirit of Vatican II wreckovation in progress of a beautiful, traditional church. I really thought it was a Catholic version of this pope’s “Back to the Past” which would be the late 60’s and early 70’s. 

But no, it was not a post spirit of Vatican II back to the past missal, but rather a Russian Missal directed at an Orthodox Cathedral in Ukraine. 

Sadly, not too much of a difference between a real bomb and the wreckovation bombs of church building and now Catholic Scripture and Tradition accomplished by the cluster bombs of the synodal way to make a different church/Church:

TRANSFORMING A BARN OF A CHURCH INTO SOMETHING ELSE—DOES IT WORK?

 

For the majority of my priesthood, I was stationed at neo-gothic/Romanesque, French Revival churches in Savannah, Augusta and Macon (Cathedral, Most Holy Trinity and St. Joseph).

I was the instigator of the renovation and restoration of both Most Holy Trinity and St. Joseph Churches. 

For the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, we used Conrad Schmidt and Company like this Florida church did for its enchantment.

As for my personal tastes, I prefer something a bit more simple, although I appreciate more ornate churches of a traditional style, although that is not me or my style. 

Thus keep that in mind of my critique:

Before and After: St. Helen's Catholic Church in Vero Beach, Florida

This is the “before-before” photo of the Church but after the free standing altar was placed in front of the pre-Vatican II altar. I like the green curtain and cornice board that matches it:

This is after the above. I don’t like what was done to the old altar, the new curtain and cornice board are horrible:

This is the after the Conrad Schmidt redecoration. I think it is a bit like putting too much lipstick on a cute pig. It’s too much for my tastes, although I know many will like this and I am sure the pastor and laity of the Church absolutely love this compared to the old. It strikes me, though, as a bit too much and trying too hard to recover a more traditional ornate look. I would have liked less which would have still been more:

The new baldacchino brings more attention to the enhanced old attached altar that has the tabernacle upon it. The new freestanding altar remains in front of it but not under the baldacchino, thus two altars back to back which should not be the case unless it is absolutely necessary for the Mass to be celebrated facing the nave. The free standing altar should have been placed under the new baldacchino and on the same level as the tabernacle altar. This was a missed opportunity:

BENEDICTINE ALTAR ARRANGEMENT MAKES A BARN OF A CHURCH LOOK BEAUTIFUL…

 Even a barn of a church can be made to look nice with the “Benedictine” altar arrangement. I do like nice curtains behind the altar. I think that is because the church where I grew up in Augusta had very nice burgundy curtains behind the pre-Vatican II altar. Later it was changed to gold, which I did not like. And then much later, prior to the new church being built, the curtains were removed and the cinderblock behind the curtains was painted red or gold, I can’t remember. 

But this is from the Deacon’s Bench, Greg Kandra’s new church in Florida ( St. Ann Catholic Church in Haines City, Florida) 

My home parish of St. Joseph Church in Augusta with red curtains at my sister and brother-in-law’s July 9, 1966 wedding, please note too the recently installed “new altar” placed on the three steps leading to the old altar but with enough room behind the new and in front of the old to allow the transitional Tridentine Mass, somewhat updated, to be celebrated facing the nave:

EUROPEAN/EUROPEAN-AMERICAN INCULTURATION OF THE MODERN ROMAN MISSAL

The modern Roman Missal allows for many adaptations. New rites based upon the Modern Missal are developing in Africa, the Amazon and Mayan Catholics. 

In terms of the latter, here is what is being made possible by bishops promoting it:

“Indigenous liturgical adaptations” submitted the Vatican for approval

If there are these liturgical adaptations of the modern Roman Missal even to allow lay leaders to incense the altar, crucifix and sacred images during Mass, once the priest blesses the incense, why not have a Roman Missal that has European Cultural adaptions based upon the ancient Roman Missal, the 1,500 year  liturgical patrimony of Europe.

We already have this with the Ordinariate’s Divine Worship, the Missal,  in terms of incorporating Anglican Liturgical Patrimony post King Henry VIII’s break with Rome.

Why not a Roman Liturgical Patrimony? 

Okay I will begrudgingly say that Pope Francis has a point that a small minority of traditionalists are anti-Vatican II and anti-Vatican II specifically in liturgical reforms. But apart from that, liturgical traditionalists are quite eclectic, many are gay, may have gay partners and want LGBTQ+++ rights in and outside of the Church, in terms of inclusivity and blessing LGBTQ+++ relationships. 

They like the lace and more prissy aspects of the Traditional Mass as well as its fussy regimentation.

Thus, since the spirit of Vatican II in terms of the all important LGBTQ+++ ideologies is driving so much in terms of the synodal church, why not take into account LGBTQ+++sentiments when it comes to the Roman Patrimony of the Mass being incorporated into the Modern Mass.

This Adapted Modern Missal would maintain the core of the 1970 Missal in terms of calendar (although with adaptations that the Ordinariate’s Calendar has), lectionary and all the prayers to include all the Eucharistic Prayers. 

Adaptations from our Roman Liturgical heritage would be applied to the Modern Roman Missal as an apppendix and optional use:

1. Prayers at the Foot of the Altar and the Order of the Ancient Mass

2. All the private silent prayers of the priest restored 

3. The Ancient form and order of the Offertory prayers. 

4. The ancient rubrics and choreography for the Roman Canon pointing out that the additional signs of the cross and movements of the priest are like a liturgical dance of hands and body allowed in other liturgical adaptions approved by the Vatican.

5. The rite of dismissal from the Ancient Missal.

All of this keeps Vatican II’s ecclesiology of active/actual participation, the modern lectionary and lay ministries for men and women. 

Perhaps Bishop Lopes, the chair bishop for the USCCB’S liturgy commission could be the advocate in Rome for this Roman Culture’s liturgical  Patrimony adaptation of the Modern Missal.  

BOMBSHELL GOOd COMMENTARY ON THE LOOMING DISASTER THAT IS THE MODERN SYNOD AND SYNODALITY

This is a good commentary by Russell Shaw who was a spokesman for the USCCB back in the day and far from a rigid, reactionary traditionalist with mental problems. 

Press: On the Matter of Synods
Russell Shaw
THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2023

 Money byte:

With time running out, the work product will be presented to the weary participants at a moment when many will be looking for something – anything – to point to as the fruit of the first stage of the Synod on Synodality. Unfortunately, however, the whole procedure will also contribute to already existing suspicions of manipulation.

We have heard repeatedly that the desired result of the whole process is a synodal Church equipped for evangelizing outreach to the peripheries. Very good. But what is to be the message to the peripheries: “Come join us in a giant consultation process that we call ‘Church’”? Frankly, I hope not.

BOMBSHELL! MORE EVIDENCE FOR THIS THAN FOR GLOBAL WARMING! ALL THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA IS REPORTING THAT WE HAVE BEEN INVADED BY ALIEN INVADERS FROM OUTER SPACE AND A NATIONAL/WORLD SECURITY ISSUE? HOW WILL THE CHURCH EVANGELIZE THESE ALIENS WITHOUT PROSELYTIZING THEM?

 One of my favorite TV shows which only aired for two seasons on ABC (1967-68) was Quinn Martin’s “The Invaders” staring Roy Thinis.

All of Quinn Martin’s TV productions were great!

The alien invaders from outer space did not like being outed and made sure that the media canceled the popular science fact show. 

There certainly is more evidence for these alien invaders than for climate change and the Invaders TV show proved it as testimony in Congress is proving. I just hope the Capitol isn’t evaporated and not by climate change, BTW!

We know these aliens, here for decades, bodies which the government has, have been proselytizing  the world with their religion. That religion is two-pronged, those who are converted to nones and those who embrace the new age religion, both of alien origin but both cut from the same cloth!

How will the Church respond and evangelize these foreign visitors from a distant planet who don’t really want truth, justice or the American way?

It’s time for the Church to get off its synodal a** and do something before it’s too late, no?

WHAT DID CARDINAL RATZINGER TEACH ABOUT THE SACRED LITURGY PRIOR TO AND AFTER BECOMING POPE BENEDICT XVI

Pope Benedict XVI took pains to explain to the world’s bishops that Summorum Pontificum emphasized their role as primary liturgists to supervise the modern and Ancient usage of the one Latin Rite to make sure there is unity between the two and divisions in parishes and the church not take place over the liturgy and the various forms of it. 

Unfortunately, bishops since the promulgation of the 1970 Roman Missal allowed divisive abuses to run rampant and even approved liturgical abuses once renegade priests promoted them, with the help of liturgical theologians in the late 60’s and into the 70’s. If bishops had disciplined priests who changed the words of the Mass or made up new ones, who allowed girl servers, communion in the hand and homemade bread and wine, which affected not only licitness but validity. We also saw improper vestments, the paraphrasing of the sung parts of the Mass, the substitution of a Scripture reading with a secular poem or something else. We heard secular songs at Mass and music completely inconsistent with what Vatican II specifically asked to be maintained. 

Pope Benedict did not want to micro manage bishops as Pope Francis does, but wanted to enable them to supervise both forms of the Mass and make decisions that assure the unity between the two forms in terms of following rubrics and reverence. 

 This is an excerpt of Pope Benedict’s letter to the world’s bishops which accompanied Summorum Pontificum. The full letter is found HERE. 

It is true that there have been exaggerations and at times social aspects unduly linked to the attitude of the faithful attached to the ancient Latin liturgical tradition. Your charity and pastoral prudence will be an incentive and guide for improving these. For that matter, the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching: new Saints and some of the new Prefaces can and should be inserted in the old Missal. The "Ecclesia Dei" Commission, in contact with various bodies devoted to the usus antiquior, will study the practical possibilities in this regard. The celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI will be able to demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage. The most sure guarantee that the Missal of Paul VI can unite parish communities and be loved by them consists in its being celebrated with great reverence in harmony with the liturgical directives. This will bring out the spiritual richness and the theological depth of this Missal.

I now come to the positive reason which motivated my decision to issue this Motu Proprio updating that of 1988. It is a matter of coming to an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church. Looking back over the past, to the divisions which in the course of the centuries have rent the Body of Christ, one continually has the impression that, at critical moments when divisions were coming about, not enough was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity. One has the impression that omissions on the part of the Church have had their share of blame for the fact that these divisions were able to harden. This glance at the past imposes an obligation on us today: to make every effort to unable for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew. I think of a sentence in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, where Paul writes: "Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return … widen your hearts also!" (2 Cor 6:11-13). Paul was certainly speaking in another context, but his exhortation can and must touch us too, precisely on this subject. Let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows.

There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place. Needless to say, in order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books. The total exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness.

In conclusion, dear Brothers, I very much wish to stress that these new norms do not in any way lessen your own authority and responsibility, either for the liturgy or for the pastoral care of your faithful. Each Bishop, in fact, is the moderator of the liturgy in his own Diocese (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22: "Sacrae Liturgiae moderatio ab Ecclesiae auctoritate unice pendet quae quidem est apud Apostolicam Sedem et, ad normam iuris, apud Episcopum").

Nothing is taken away, then, from the authority of the Bishop, whose role remains that of being watchful that all is done in peace and serenity. Should some problem arise which the parish priest cannot resolve, the local Ordinary will always be able to intervene, in full harmony, however, with all that has been laid down by the new norms of the Motu Proprio.

Helen Hill Hitchcock wrote the following after Summorum Pontificum in 2007:

In October 1998, at a conference held in Rome to observe the tenth anniversary of Ecclesia Dei adflicta, then-Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out persistent difficulties and divisions: some regarded “attachment to the old Liturgy” as disruptive, he said, while others continued to have “reservations” about the Council itself and about “obedience towards the legitimate pastors of the Church”. 

To overcome such difficulties, Cardinal Ratzinger stressed the importance of continuity. He told his audience of “traditionalist” Catholics that the “old Mass” had “never been abolished” by the Council, and that the liturgical abuses that arose following the Council were the result of “lack of obedience to the Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium”. 

“It is very important to observe the essential criteria of the Constitution on the Liturgy” Cardinal Ratzinger said, “including when one celebrates according to the old Missal! The moment when this Liturgy truly touches the faithful with its beauty and its richness, then it will be loved, then it will no longer be irreconcilably opposed to the new Liturgy, providing that these criteria are indeed applied as the Council wished”. 

Cardinal Ratzinger also strongly emphasized, in this 1998 address, the continuity between the two forms of the Liturgy:

Different spiritual and theological emphases will certainly continue to exist, but there will no longer be two contradictory ways of being a Christian; there will instead be that richness which pertains to the same single Catholic faith. When, some years ago, somebody proposed “a new liturgical movement” in order to avoid the two forms of the Liturgy becoming too distanced from each other, and in order to bring about their close convergence, at that time some of the friends of the old Liturgy expressed their fear that this would only be a stratagem or a ruse, intended to eliminate the old Liturgy finally and completely.

Such anxieties and fears really must end! If the unity of faith and the oneness of the mystery appear clearly within the two forms of celebration, that can only be a reason for everybody to rejoice and to thank the good Lord. Inasmuch as we all believe, live and act with these intentions, we shall also be able to persuade the bishops that the presence of the old Liturgy does not disturb or break the unity of their diocese, but is rather a gift destined to build-up the Body of Christ, of which we are all the servants.

The stress on continuity and unity is consistent with Pope Benedict’s more recent observations — in his Apostolic Letter, Sacramentum Caritatis, of February 22, 2007, for example. In the introduction, he emphasizes the unity and continuity of the Liturgy:

If we consider the [2000-year] history of God’s Church, guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we can gratefully admire the orderly development of the ritual forms in which we commemorate the event of our salvation. From the varied forms of the early centuries, still resplendent in the rites of the Ancient Churches of the East, up to the spread of the Roman rite; from the clear indications of the Council of Trent and the Missal of Saint Pius V to the liturgical renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council: in every age of the Church’s history the Eucharistic celebration, as the source and summit of her life and mission, shines forth in the liturgical rite in all its richness and variety…. The Synod of Bishops was able to evaluate the reception of the renewal in the years following the Council. There were many expressions of appreciation. The difficulties and even the occasional abuses which were noted, it was affirmed, cannot overshadow the benefits and the validity of the liturgical renewal, whose riches are yet to be fully explored. Concretely, the changes which the Council called for need to be understood within the overall unity of the historical development of the rite itself, without the introduction of artificial discontinuities (SC 3).

In Sacramentum Caritatis Pope Benedict repeatedly refers to this continuity of the “immense patrimony” of the Church — the great heritage transmitted throughout her 2000-year history by the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy.

PROGRESSIVES IN THE CHURCH DEFY POPE FRANCIS TEACHING THAT WE DON'T WORSHIP DOCTRINE--BUT THEY ARE THE NEW DOCTORS OF THE LAW INTERPRETING VATICAN II AS THOUGH IT IS THE BIBLE

 

The NCR reporter of the commentary I link below, is a doctor of the law. He worships Vatican II, synodality and ambiguous theology, doctrine and morals. Where is God in all of this.

If only he would heed Pope Francis and realize we don't worship the Bible, Tradition, morality, Vatican II or anyone's interpretation and implementation, we worship God alone who alone can save us, what a better Church we would have, no?

Here is an example of a "doctor of the law" which Pope Francis has condemned over and over again:

Pope Francis' new Vatican doctrinal chief signals enormous change for Catholic Church

Pope Francis' naming of Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández as the new prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith marks the most consequential curial appointment of this pontificate, writes Richard Gaillardetz.

ByRichard Gaillardetz

CLIMATE CHANGE: CAN MAN CHANGE IT? OR IS IT A GOD-GIVEN LEADING TO THE BIBLICAL FINAL CONSUMATION AND LAST JUDGEMENT?

 

The mainstream media news departments, really political ideologues, are once again pushing hysteria about natural aspects of life and death. Like the Covid-19 epidemic, often opinion mixed with hysteria guided their reporting. The same with climate change.

There is no historical context. They don’t tell us that most of us experience climate change with the four seasons and differing weather patterns. Even an ocean fog can bring climate change to specific ocean communities. They don’t give us the facts that there have been many, many major climate changes since the earth was created. Think of the ice age. Think about Georgia. The Atlantic Ocean once gave Augusta, Macon and Columbus (middle Georgia) beaches with the Atlantic lapping at our doorsteps. The house I lived in as a teenager had sand as the soil from a one time beach. The ocean now from about 130 miles to almost 200 miles away. Did human activity do this?

Some in the Church are so enamored with political ideologies and submitting to these, that they fail to preach the need for repentance in order to save their souls not only from climate change and the final judgement but from the fires of hell that never has climate change!

But back the the main stream media’s opinions about climate change, their reporting lacks common sense in order to promote a political ideology and an all electric world with clean energy. That makes them feel in control of reversing what God is wroughting, if you will. If they have investments in an all electric world--it will make them rich too.

Let’s take Death Valley as another example. Was it human and animal reasons that the ocean receded and mountains appeared and the weather changed? I report; you answer:

 

Death Valley Geology Overview

Ancient Seas

Death Valley's rocks, structure and landforms offer a wealth of information about what the area may have looked like in the past. It is apparent that there has not always been a valley here. Death Valley's oldest rocks, formed about 1.8 billion years ago have been so severely altered and suffered so many changes the their history is nearly unreadable. A clearer picture is presented by rocks dating about 500 million years ago. These rocks, found in the Panamint and Funeral Mountains are made of sandstone and limestone indicating it was the site of a warm, shallow sea throughout most of the Paleozoic Era (570-250 million years ago)

GLOSSARY > limestone, strata

Warped Mountains

Time passed and the sea began to slowly recede to the west as land was pushed up. This uplift was due to the movment occurring far beneath the Earth's surface. Scientists have discovered that the Earth's crust is composed of a series of interconnected sections, or plates. The site of Death Valley lies adjacent to the boundary separating two of these plates. As the plates slowly moved in relation to each other, compressional forces gradually folded, warped and fractured the brittle crust. This widespread rock deformation and faulting occurred throughout most of the Mesozoic Era (250-70 million years ago). Active mountain building periods alternated with quiet times when forces of erosion worked to break down the mountains that had formed.

WHEN WILL AUTHORITARIAN BISHOPS GIVE PARISHES A CHOICE IN LITURGICAL DIRECTION AND ENSHRINE IT IN CANON LAW?

Mandate this or that:

There is a liturgical mess in India in an eastern rite that fell victim to the Latinization of their liturgy because of what someone said Vatican II taught (which it didn’t, of course).

On top of that, this eastern rite Church is historically a synodal Church as the Eastern Rite and the Orthodox Churches understand synodality, which apparently is a bit different than Pope Francis’ vision. 

But somehow Vatican II in this Indian Eastern Rite Church has created the same mess it as cause in the Latin Rite. But again, that’s not right, as the mess is caused by the spirit of Vatican II and not Vatican II itself. It is caused by ideologues who weaponized Vatican II. 

The problem in the Indian Eastern Rite is that after Vatican II they started to celebrate their form of the Mass facing the congregation for the entirety of the Mass.

Evidently, not all of the eastern rite parishes did so; some maintained the ad orientem posture traditional to this rite and every rite in the Eastern Rite and in the Latin Rite until after Vatican II.

So a compromise was established in an authoritarian way. They wanted to implement a uniform way of celebrating the Eastern Rite Liturgy in India. And it was mandated that the Introductory and Concluding Rites of their Divine Liturgy would be celebrated facing the congregation and the Liturgy of the Eucharist would be ad orientem. 

Guess who rioted over this? Those who did not want a uniform way of celebrating the Liturgy and demanded that it be celebrated facing the people. And yes they rioted and continue to riot.

Why not have the flexibility of Pope Benedict XVI when it comes to the Mass? Why not say it is completely proper to celebrate the Mass ad orientem and enshrine that in canon law but with a codicil that if the Mass is celebrated facing the people, the altar must be decorated with the traditional so-called “Benedictine altar arrangement” meaning that the crucifix is placed dead center on the altar facing the priest. The altar arrangement should be codified in liturgical law. 

John Allen at Crux has an article on this which you can read HERE. But below is an excerpt:

The dispute is over liturgy. In 2021, the Syro-Malabar Synod, made up of the church’s bishops led by Cardinal George Alencherry, decided to standardize celebration of the Mass, including liturgical posture. Basically speaking, they decided the priest should face the people during the Liturgy of the Word, the altar during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the people again for the closing rites.

A large share of the clergy and laity in Ernakulam-Angamaly balked at those changes, insisting that they’d been celebrating facing the people for decades and saw no reason to change. Moreover, they argued, the orientation versus populum is more in keeping with the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

This dispute hasn’t just been carried out in learned theological journals, but in the streets and even, occasionally, in angry disruptions to celebrations inside churches.

A Vatican effort to lower the temperature by appointing a special Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly has, in most respects, apparently backfired. When Archbishop Andrews Thazhath recently ordered the vicar at St. Mary’s deposed over his refusal to implement the uniform Mass, protestors gathered outside to burn his decree, accusing Thazhath of being “drunk with power,” and refusing to allow a different cleric to take charge.

Things became so heated that in the run-up to Christmas celebrations last year, Thazhath actually requested police protection, saying he feared for his life. After rival factions clashed inside the basilica, the Christmas midnight Mass had to be cancelled.

LET’S GET REAL AND BRIEF

The Archdiocese of Baltimore, where I went to the major seminary in the 1970’s, has a very long document, newly released, on ministry to LGBTQ people. You can read it HERE.

It’s a good document and way too long. Way too long is the problem. 

When in comes to ministry in the Church, just how many people do we reach with “special” ministries and communities? Not that many, in fact a small minority of those who actually attend Mass on Sunday.

As a priest and pastor, I always emphasized that every Catholic was required to attend Mass, under the penalty of mortal sin, btw, each and every Sunday and Holy Day of obligation. I did not say that unrepentant sinners were dispensed and that we would prefer that they not attend Mass. 

Why are we categorizing sexual sins of differently oriented people? Can’t we all just be people and call sin, sin in a pleasant pastoral way? Adultery, fornication, sodomy and the various “philias” associated with sex are all sin, at least venial, and mortal if committed with the full consent of the will and with forethought and planning. 

When sinners are called out for being sinners at Mass, that leads them to feel some guilt and then that leads them to repentance and confession, isn’t that a mature way of spiritual renewal and reform Each of us is in need on continual reform throughout out lives not just aspects of the institutional Church. 

A homily should not be intended to offend people, sinner or saint. Pastoral skills are needed in preaching a good homily that points out sin. However, the 1970’s meme was that preachers should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Maybe that’s the problem today, going back to the 70’s?

Most priests don’t have experience with specialized ministries to those with varying sexual orientations. They may, though, hear someone’s confession or offer spiritual and moral guidance to those who come to them for pastoral counseling. There is a skill that is needed here, which is not a science but an art and done better or worse depending on the priest or Catholic pastoral minister. 

But let’s face, the majority of people to whom the Church minsters to, only want to come to Mass on Sunday, get their children baptized and want marriage in the Church. They might go to Confession regularly or not so regularly. The majority don’t want specialized ministries to their particular issues or peccadilloes. 

They don’t want the Church meddling in their sex life on an individual basis, although they might not or might take offense to a homily that makes them feel guilty about what they do sexually. 

Why aren’t there pastoral long, long long letters on the divorced and remarried, heterosexuals struggling with sexual sins and the like? 

Why not treat all sinners and saints equally and not meddle specifically in their sex lives. Let them figure it out by teaching the truth in a pastoral way and let them know that they and they alone (along with Jesus Christ, their Advocate/lawyer)  will stand at the judgement seat of God at their death and particular judgement. Treat Catholics who are adults as adults not children!