BISHOP-ELECT PARKES FIRST HOMILY AT THURSDAY'S CATHEDRAL-BASILCA'S DAILY MASS

What tells me how old I am is that I was vocation director for the Diocese of Savannah, when this bishop-elect was in the seminary at Boynton Beach, Florida. We had two seminarians, one of whom became a priest for our diocese, studying at this seminary in the early 1990's when the two Parkes boys were there. Our seminarian who became a priest was recruited by me when I was associate pastor of the cathedral and he sang in the cathedral men's choir, Fr. Joseph Smith, who I succeeded as pastor here at St. Anne's in Richmond Hill, of which Savannah is a suburb. I did not know the Parkes boys at the time but I am sure if they are 6'5' and 7' tall I would have noticed them.

And to add insult to injury in terms of my aging process, the Diocesan Administrator, sitting on the left, is Fr. Daniel Firmin who was my parishioner in Augusta and a great altar boy there for the parish. I think he was 11 or 12 years old when I got to Church of the Most Holy Trinity in 1991. Fr. Firmin's first priestly assignment was with me at St. Joseph in Macon as parochial vicar when I was named pastor there on July 1, 2004. I was laid to rest there in June of 2016, thus 2004-2016.

His Bishop-Elect is wearing his zuchetto for the first time at Mass:

BISHOP ELECT STEPHEN PARKES’ BROTHER, BISHOP GREGORY PARKES FRIENDLY TO EXTRAORDINARY TRADITION

 Bishop-elect Parkes' brother, Bishop Parkes of St.Petersburg is "friendly" toward the EF Community. A better descriptive is "pastoral" and I hope our new bishop will be pastoral to this community too, and open minded as well. It would be great if he would celebrate an EF Confirmation, or wedding, or funeral. It would be mind blowing for him and us!

From the Pastor: The Bishop Came to Epiphany! Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida

Bulletin article, February 11

It happened! Our new Bishop, Gregory Parkes, came to Epiphany parish last week!

This was no ordinary visit from our Ordinary, though. This was the beginning of a new era.  Bishop Parkesbestowed the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Traditional Latin Rite. It was a first for him and the first time that the venerable Old Rite of Confirmation was bestowed by the Bishop in this Diocese in 50 years or so.

Three Catholic communities joined together for this ceremony, which was a beautiful act of unity, a show of true Catholicity, as the priests of St. Joseph Vietnamese Mission and Immaculate Conception Haitian Mission sent their confirmandi to join with those from Epiphany. The three “native” languages spoken by the families who gathered, English, Creole and Vietnamese, were blended together as if by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, by the official language of the Church, that is, Latin. Oh, for the day when we will all be united at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by this sacred language once again!

Bishop Gregory Parkes at Epiphany of Our Lord, Tampa, Florida.  Photo by Cynthia Ferreira Crank.

Seven priests, including the Bishop’s MC, were part of the ceremony, plus the Bishop. I don’t think we have had so many clergy in the church since I have been here. Though they will never read this, I certainly want to thank them all for being here.

The altar boys and MC from our parish did an outstanding job. Thank you, gentlemen. We had no rehearsal for this, as there was no time for the Bishop or his MC to come scope out the place beforehand even to get the lay of the land (or, better, to size up the sanctuary) to see how everyone would fit, where the Bishop’s faldstool (his chair) would be placed, or anything like that. Only one priest present had even witnessed a Traditional Rite Confirmation.

Trying to visualize everything only by reading the rubrics is not nearly the same as personally experiencing the ceremony. Of course, we knew that nobody in the congregation knew what we were supposed to be doing, either, so as long as we projected confidence nobody would be the wiser no matter what happened. The schola was able to… well, you all know our schola. You know that they filled the church with heavenly–even angelic–voices. Thank you all for pulling it off with such seeming ease.

Then, after the ceremony was done, the Epiphany Council of Catholic Women, who had swarmed the social hall in the afternoon setting up for a Confirmation party, had a surprise for each of the just-confirmed youngsters from each parish. Not only did they supply cake and drinks, balloons and decorations, but they also had a gift bag for each newly anointed Saint-in-the-making. Thank you, wonderful ladies, for all the work and resources you put into this.

With prayers for your holiness,

Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka

HABEMUS BISHOP! BISHOP ELECT STEPHEN PARKES OF THE DIOCESE OF ORLANDO!

He was until this morning pastor of Annunciation Parish in the Diocese of Orlando. They just came out of lock down this past Sunday, July 5. Here is his Mass:

Strict comment moderation. As you know, it is a mortal sin to sin against charity!

Bishop Gregory Parkes, our bishop-elect's brother, is the Bishop of Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Our bishop-elect is about 6'5" and his brother is almost 7'! He looks short compared to his brother. 

AMERICA'S CIVIL RELIGION HAS ALWAY HAD A PURITANTICAL STREAK

America has always had a civil religion that included a Protestant and a deist perspective. Clearly there was separation of Church and State, but a civil religion did develop with Judeo Christian principles, but clearly not Catholic.

Today there is a developing new civil religion, purely secular, purely atheistic but a religion nonetheless. This godless, secular civil religion, though, still has as its underpinnings puritantical ideologies, not in the arena of sex, normally associated with Puritans, but in the area of a lack of an ability to forgive the wrongs of the past, culturally defined and applied to individuals who are far  from pure, sexually maybe, but that is unimportant, racial prejudices are the unforgivable sins now.

Thus, any figure from the past that did what the law allowed, buy and sell slaves, seperate but equal and a failed revolution to create a new country, a confederate country, all of  it and all of them must be cleansed from the history of the country as the new puritanical, secular, godless civil religion of the land will not tolerate the imperfect from the past or present.

Which political party supports  best this new secular, godless, puritantical civil religion? I will give you one guess.

Should Catholics be forbidden, in a puritanical way, from being a part of this anti-Catholic religion and the political party that supports it?

And when these same puritans become enlightened enough to recognize the horror that happens when all lives don't really matter, especially the unborn, will they do the same to those in that party who supported abortion on demand and the laws that enabled it and those who have abortions and provide them?

WHAT 7/7/07 HATH WROUGHT

To the untrained eye, the two Masses below are in continuity with each other although one is and EF and the other is an OF. The third photo is in a clear breach with the tradition of continuity so desired by Pope Benedict and his historic 7/7/07!

July 7, 2007 is a turning point in the post-Vatican II new liturgical movement. Pope Benedict set in motion the processes necessary for authentic liturgical renewal that veered off course dramatically beginning about 1966.

Sacrosanctum Concilium's general guidelines for liturgical renewal were very conservative and with clear parameters. But Pope Paul VI's concilium committee with a rogue bishop in charge with an agenda and ideology that went far beyond what Vatican II mandated, thwarted what Vatican II asked and the liturgy wars and the alienation resulting from this prevented the new springtime for the Church and ended up creating a long, harsh and ongoing liturgical winter which is the foundation of the malaise in the Church in 2020 where only 12 to 20 % of Catholic actually attend the reformed Mass envisioned not by Vatican II but a rogue bishop in charge of concilium.

As everyone knows, I celebrate both forms of the one Latin Rite. Actually, I have also and only once celebrated the third form of the one Latin Rite, the Ordinariate's Roman Missal, Divine Worship.

Divine Worship, apart from archaic English and wordy Anglican accretions, could easily become the template for a new Ordinary Form Missal. Pray this comes about, a true reform of the reform in continuity.

But the processes set in motion by Pope Benedict on 7/7/07 will continue even if priests my age slightly young and much older have an antipathy towards the EF Mass.

But think about this. The EF Mass has led to better celebrations of the OF Mass in terms of attention to detail, more ad orientem, kneeling for Holy Communion and more Gregorian Chant.

Anything to improve the celebration of the Ordinary Form of the Mass must be welcome as this form of the Mass will be the Mass that the majority of the 12% of Catholics who attend Mass will experience

Thank you Pope Benedict, Emeritus or otherwise. 

ROCCO PALMA IS MORE CONVOLUTED IN HIS ITALIAN ENGLISH THAN I AM SO RIDDLE HIM BACK

A snapshot of the breadth – and relativism – of a truly unprecedented news-year, the same folks who rejoiced in the dumping of statues in the Tiber at its start (https://bit.ly/2JGaxhJ  ) now stand outraged over the toppling of other cultural symbols in the US.

Riddle us that.

FORGET ABOUT THE AMAZON AND MARRIED PRIESTS; SAINT ANNE IN RICHMOND HILL, GEORGIA IS THE AMAZON OF MARRIED PRIESTS AS WAS AUGUSTA

On Thursday I got an email from a Catholic priest who just moved to Richmond Hill. He is a Major in the Army and is the new Chaplain for Fort Stewart about 20 miles from Richmond Hill.

He told me he just got here and would like to introduce himself to me. Today, Sunday, he is concelebrating our 10:30 AM Mass with our brand parochial vicar, newly ordained, celebrating and preaching his first 10:30 AM High Mass.

Oh, by the way, he is a married Catholic priest and has six children the youngest 21 years old.

Yes, he is a former Episcopal/Anglican priest ordained a Catholic priest in 2013 thanks be to God because of Pope Benedict’s splendid ecumenism.

He is the second married army chaplain/priest in Richmond Hill, the other transferred away before I got here. And of course I had a married priest as my parochial vicar at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity the entire 14 years I was there and there were two others in Augusta as well, once a former Protestant Episcopal Church bishop.

Yes indeed, we are the Amazon of the USA and did not even have a synod to make way for married priests!

COVID-19 AND ETHICAL CONCERNS AS WELL AS THE CATHOLIC MOMENT LOST

A pandemic is not to be ignored, nor is the fear mongering of politicians and the media and others of good or ill will

Pandemics are not to be ignored, but fear mongering and using a pandemic for political purposes is reprehensible.

Politicians and their lackeys do what politicians and their lackeys do; let’s take that for granted.

I think, though, because of the constitutional basis for the freedom of the press, we have a right to demand accurate reporting without an implicit and explicit exploitation of that reporting for political purposes supporting this, that and the other candidate or political movement.

When it comes to this pandemic we should demand that reporters not report every person who is tested as positive as having a death sentence hung around their neck.

When it comes to this pandemic, we should demand that reporters report what percentage of those who are positive are exhibiting serious symptoms requiring hospitalization. Thus if there are 1000 testing positive, how many of those are in the hospital. And if in the hospital, how many are in ICU and if in ICU how many are on ventilators.

The fact is that the vast, vast majority of those testing positive either have no symptoms, mild symptoms or flu like symptoms on steroids but not requiring hospitalization and all of these people at home with the flu like symptoms on steroids recover at home, just like the flu.

I have good friends in Augusta and the entire family has tested positive. The father has flu like symptoms on steroids but can still function at home. The mother and three children have only lost their sense of smell and taste and all of them are on the mend.

We have a right to critique network, social media and print news accounts who report on the worst hit areas with the highest deaths as though this is common everywhere in the USA or elsewhere. It would be like reporting that the violent deaths in Chicago each week which exceeds the deaths in Iraq or Afghanistan is typical of every city in the USA or reported as though it is.

Another example illustrates my point. A few weeks ago we had a deacon ordination at our Cathedral Basilica. One of the older permanent deacons attending discovered after the ordination he had tested positive. Pandemonium broke out. Prior to the Mass, this deacon came up to me as we had not seen or spoken to each other in years. He shook my hand and we had a long conversation up close and personal. It was recommended that everyone who had contact with him shelter in place for two weeks, get tested in a few days and pray they don’t die with everyone else who was in the Cathedral with him. My parochial vicar and seminarian as well as I were all tested and tested negative. No one, in fact, who got tested, tested positive. And the deacon who caused the hysteria? Never had serious symptoms and is well on the mend.

And finally the Church has an opportunity here to call Catholics and others of good will to repentance and preparation for the after life just as we do during the seasons of Advent and Lent. It is religious malpractice not to do so.

This is my parish Facebook letter update:

Updates from our pastor as of
July 4, 2020

Dear Parishioners,

Happy Independence Day!

The Obligation to attend Mass continues to be lifted through July due to the ongoing pandemic. Fr. Daniel Firmin Diocesan Administrator will discern when the obligation to attend Mass will be reinstated or delayed further.  Therefore, if you are sick in any way, have a hacking cough, are sneezing, or have a fever please do not atttend Mass. If you have underlying health issues or are age 65 and older with health risks, please know you are released from the obligation to attend Mass. Watch our live feed of Mass, make an Act of Perfect Contrition and a spiritual Communion.

I must reiterate that we can’t guarantee your good health when attending Mass even with our precautions in place.  If someone comes to Mass with an active virus, common sense tells us that it can be spread in the congregation.  Let us pray that our precautions will prevent that.

We are highly recommending that you wear a mask to help dissipate any risks to others and yourself.  If the Diocese mandates the use of a mask or Bryan County officials do for public buildings, the use of a mask will be mandatory in Saint Anne also.  Please, though, maintain six feet physical distancing especially if you are not wearing a mask.

Life in the public square is more risky than ever. Going into the public from the shelter of our homes is kind of like going into combat. We have armor to wear but that will not prevent casualties or death. Yet we go forward bravely. All the more reason, though, to put on the armor of God, go to confession and be right with God and neighbor for the promise of eternal life and Independence! God bless you.

THIS MAN DOES NOT SPEAK WITH FORKED TONGUE

I know Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo very well as he was the director of the North American  Seminary in Rome Sabbatical Program. I took my three month sabbatical there beginning in September of 2013. Msgr. Figueiredo was very kind to me, very knowledgeable about things and a nice guy. He is trustworthy:

WHAT DO YA THINK?

Admittedly this is a difficult space for a Catholic Church, no matter how much one tries to improve it. As with many recent attempts to impose a classical sanctuary on an impossible mess, I just don’t know if it is worth the time, talent and treasure to do it.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I think it is improvement, though. I dislike the starburst from the crucifix. But the ultra modern, ultra cheap looking stained glass clashes with the classic looking traditional altar. Maybe if those are eventually changed to something more classic, it would unify the theme? But is it worth it?

THAT’S WHAT I‘M TALKING ABOUT!

What is it about the post-Vatican II formation or deformation of priests and the Ordinary Form of the Mass that any priest would turn the Mass into his own platform to be creative, relevant, meaningful and just stupid?

Could you imagine seeing something  like this with the EF Mass???? Even a deformed priest could not manipulate the EF Mass as he can the OF Mass!



This is World War II color footage of a Mass onboard a Navy Ship near Japan. Mass is being celebrated under harsh conditions. Yet look at the reverence of the priest, but more importantly, the reverence of these Catholic sailors many of whom probably died in the war. Notice in particular the reception of Holy Communion. What is it about the very intrinsic nature of this form of the Mass that reverence is so palpable and the priest’s looks and personality are so, so much in the background and unimportant? No clericalism here compared to the video above.



The first video of the relevant Mass at the top I got from a relatively good post on Praytell, which shocked me, a good post, that is. You can read it HERE.

However, there is this comment that I really like but good old Fr. Alan, I think he is, misses the disease although he diagnosis the symptom:

Alan Griffiths says:

July 3, 2020 at 4:11 am

It’s back to the 1960’s again!

My Seminary years were plagued by people wanting to have ‘meaningful’ liturgies, which were usually turgid ‘Bible Services’ on Saturday evenings.

However, the ‘folk’ music we used, much of which was written by the students, most of it was Scriptural and some of it very good, sort of made things more bearable. 

But the experience has given me a sort of PTSD about ‘relevance’ and ‘meaningfulness.’

AG

Of course, I resonate with his “back to the 1960’s again” which I have been complaining about ever since March 13, 2013. I resonate with his PTSD comment too! 

But the correct observation about “relevance and meaningfulness” is only a superficial diagnosis. The problem is intrinsic to what praytell calls the “reformed” Mass as opposed to the “unreformed” Mass. Reformed = good; Unreformed = baddddd!

The state of the “reformed” Mass today is so dismal compared to the “unreformed” Mass prior to the Council, that one now realizes that we need another Ecumenical Council to reform the intrinsically deformed reformed Mass. We need a “reform of the reform.”

The problems with the pre-Vatican II Mass which the council fathers thought needed reforming are minuscule compared to the reformed Mass we got from Pope Paul VI and His Holiness’ rogue concilium.

But also, that ecumenical council needs to examine the deformation of the priesthood as a result of the erroneous interpretation of Vatican II, that priestly formation leads to such deformation. We need a reform of the reform of the formation of priests. 

THIS MIGHT BE BEATING A DEAD HORSE, BUT HOW HAS GOD USED COVID-19 TO BRING ABOUT LITURGICAL REFORM IN CONTINUITY WHICH POPE BENEDICT SO DESIRED?

1. No socializing in the church before or after Mass or looking backwards to talk, praying before    the tabernacle is encouraged but silence mandated

2. Recommended no singing or speaking, so the best option appears for the priest not to face the congregation, speak in a low voice and only have a server responding on behalf of the laity. For those who long for spirit of Vatican II, recorded Gregorian Chant by well trained scholas can be played over the PA by a minister of technology for the propers and the parts of the Mass--how kool would that be?

3. Churches in the round create health risks, so straight pews directly to the altar, not toward each other need to be restored sparing no expense to do so for health reasons

4. No sign of peace

5. No common chalice and less need for EMHC.

6. Not sure how masks could be seen as a restoration in continuity, although some orders of nuns used to cover their face when they went to Holy Communion as I recall.

I continue to be most amazed at how amazingly prophetic I was about the germ spreading, epidemic causing and pandemic spreading common chalice, for decades now. 

Even bishops and priests concelebrating Mass now intinct their Host rather than the deadly drinking one after the other and the Host is on the altar next to the chalice rather than given to them during the Agnus Dei, all great reforms to say the least.

SELF ABSORPTION AND THE CORRUPTION OF THE TRUE CHURCH

As everyone who reads my blog knows, I attended a very liberal “spirit of Vatican II” seminary in Baltimore, Maryland from 1976 to 80.

I have said it before and I will say it again, my experience there was great. I loved the academic challenges and the expansion of my experiences of the Church of that period. While there was certainly liturgical and theological hogwash, not all of it was. I had great professors for Scripture and Systematic (Dogmatic) theology. Moral theology was quite iffy there as well as pastoral theology, a new subject foisted on us with the most boring, touchy-feely kinds of teachers.

What I loved, though, which has helped me later in my priesthood was that the methodology of our teachers for both Scripture and Systematic theology was to show us how the subject would have been taught prior to Vatican II and what Vatican II allegedly taught about how to teach it after Vatican II. Even in the 1970’s I could see the post-Vatican II ethos was questionable compared to the pre-Vatican II ethos.

In terms of Scripture, we had great Scripture scholars for both the Old ad New Testament. One professor would always point out in the Old Testament what constituted “sick” or “corrupt” religion compare to “healthy” religion.

When Israel became self absorbed with themselves, their focus was on worship and structures rather than following the Lord and unity. Jesus came to shake Israel from its self-absorbed status and go out to the world and bring everyone into God’s kingdom.

Prior to Vatican II there were no liturgy wars, self absorbed discussions about inculturation, self absorbed discussions about ecclesiology, councils, structures and programs.

Prior to Vatican II the family which was strong, knew they were the Church in miniature and had to formed good Catholic children to become good Catholic adults. They had to provide vocations to the priesthood and religious life which were abundant for most of the 20th Century until about 1968.

Religious life and the priesthood were not preoccupied about their life and structure but more concerned about their apostolate and “ministries.” And the lay apostolate was important too.

THERE WERE NO LITURGICAL WARS. The Mass was the Mass and people poured into the Mass and overflowed the Church.

What era of the Church is the most corrupt in terms of self-absorption? The Church of the 1950’s or the Church post 1965 to this day?

Here is an interest comment from a Praytell post on Gregorian Chant prior to Vatican II in parishes:

We had several early Low Masses, a Solemn Mass at 10:30 and a Low Mass with sermon at 12 noon, which was a standard pattern in large parishes in England. The 12 was always packed out, from the age of twelve (1950) I and most men would stand because of a lack of seats. The 10:30 was full but not packed. The same picture in the neighbouring parish, where the crowd overflowed the church and we stood in the forecourt. No one took Communion.

FROM RORATE CAELI

Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, Rest in Peace

Georg Ratzinger

15. I. 1924

1.VII. 2020

+

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; 

in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, 

et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. 

Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, 

et cum Lazaro quondam paupere 

æternam habeas requiem.

POPE FRANCIS CANONIZED THIS SAINT, WHO IN HEAVEN IS NOW BEING MARTYRED ON EARTH

The 18th century missionary who played the lead role in the establishment of the Franciscan missions of California, Serra's canonization without the usually required second miracle was Francis' personal initiative in tribute to Saint Junipero's effectiveness in and dedication to evangelization as sketched out by Papa Bergoglio in Evangelii gaudium, the late 2013 text that is the governing manifesto of his pontificate.

Here again, the canonization of a Saint now being martyred in the USA post canonization:

IS IT A PATHOLOGY THAT HAS CAUSED ARCBHISHOP VIGANO TO GO OFF THE RAILS? IF SO, PRAY FOR HIM

Sandro Magister is no flaming progressive. He is an Italian Vaticanista and worth reading. He is a traditionalist but not off the rails as some on either side of the orthodoxy spectrum seem to be.

Magister seems to think that Archbishop Vigano is losing it:

Archbishop Viganò On the Brink of Schism. The Unheeded Lesson of Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI promoted him to apostolic nuncio in the United States in 2011. The meek theologian pope certainly could not have imagined, nine years ago, that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò - who returned to private life in 2016 but has been anything but hidden - would today be blaming him for having “deceived” the whole Church in that he would have it be believed that the Second Vatican Council was immune to heresies and moreover should be interpreted in perfect continuity with true perennial doctrine.

Because this is just the length to which Viganò has gone in recent days, capping off a relentless barrage of denunciations of Church heresies over the last few decades, with the root of it all being the Council, most recently in an exchange with Phil Lawler, editor of CatholicCulture.org.

Attention: not the Council interpreted badly, but the Council as such and en bloc. In his latest public statements, in fact, Viganò has rejected as too timid and vacuous even the claim of some to “correct” Vatican II here and there, in its texts which in his judgment are more blatantly heretical, such as the declaration “Dignitatis Humanae” on religious freedom. Because what must be done once and for all - he has demanded - is "to drop it 'in toto' and forget it.”

Naturally with the concomitant “expulsion from the sacred precinct” of all those Church authorities who, identified as guilty of the deception and “invited to amend,” have not changed their ways.
According to Viganò, what has distorted the Church ever since the Council is a sort of “universal religion whose first theoretician was Freemasonry.” And whose political arm is that “completely out-of-control world government” pursued by the “nameless and faceless” powers that are now bending to their own interests even the coronavirus pandemic.

Last May 8, cardinals Gerhard Müller and Joseph Zen Zekiun also carelessly affixed their signatures to an appeal by Viganò against this looming “New World Order.”

Just as to a subsequent open letter from Viganò to Donald Trump - whom he invoked as a warrior of light against the power of darkness that acts both in the “deep state” and in the “deep Church” - the president of the United States replied enthusiastically, with a tweet that went viral.

But getting back to the reckless indictment launched by Viganò against Benedict XVI for his “failed attempts to correct conciliar excesses by invoking the hermeneutic of continuity,” it is obligatory to give the accused the right to speak.

The hermeneutic of continuity - or more precisely: “the ‘hermeneutic of reform,’ of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church”  - is in fact the keystone of the interpretation that Benedict XVI gave of Vatican Council II, in his memorable address to the Vatican curia on Christmas Eve of 2005, the first year of his pontificate
.
It is a speech that is absolutely to be reread in its entirety:

> “Your Eminences, venerable brothers…”

But here in summation is how pope Joseph Ratzinger developed his exegesis of Vatican Council II.

READ THE REST THERE BY PRESSING HERE.

I LIKE IT! MIKEY LIKES IT TOO!

I have no problem with religious art inculturated. Keep in mind that the two on the road to Emmaus did not recognize the Crucified and Risen Lord. If the Risen Lord can look like Bread and Wine, He can look like anyone including a white supermodel or an African in dreglocks.

There is beautiful incultruated pre-Vatican II art that depicts Jesus and the saints of the Church as oriental or other races. I like this artwork from a black artist. My only critique would be that it is a bit too Hollywoodish. Too model-like, too beautiful. For the most part, these are from a glamour magzine and not rank and file looking people. But apart from that, it is a wonderful resource for Catholic art. There are white depictions that are the same way, too Hollywoodish but laity love like these two of Christ:

You can look at all the religious artwork at the ordinal Facebook post HERE.

THE DWINDLING NUMBER OF PRACTICING CATHOLICS: IT ISN'T JUST A LIBERAL PROBLEM

The number of practicing Catholics continues to dwindle in the west. What is unique is that they no longer even consider themselves Catholic when they cease to practice the faith, "once a Catholic, always a Catholic" notwithstanding.

Germany and its spiraling out of control liberal Catholicism is seeing phenomenal numbers of Catholics telling the state they are no longer Catholic. That's how it works in Germany as practicing religious people pay a church tax to the state that then gives money to the Church. Clergy in Germany are well paid. Heck, I'd go to an almost non existent parish for that kind of pay!

Why are Catholics leaving the Church or at least the practice of the Faith with Mass attendance being the measure?

Quite simply, they don't believe what the Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God.

They leave for a variety of reasons. My personal opinion and it truly is a very humble opinion is that the post-Vatican II Church simply can't stand up to the cafeteria of secularism and its derision of religion in general and Catholicism in particular. The Church has bent over backwards to accommodate modern trends and the signs of the times and to what effect? My humble opinion is a Church in disarray not really knowing what it believes and trying to refashion it in ways that even the architects of the reinvented or re-imagined church can't figure out. Confusion reigns and a pontiff that seems  to delight in the mess the Church has become and is.

Let's face it, many Catholics leave the church over sexual issues, be it fornication, adultery, artificial contraception or the full array of LGBTQ issues or divorce and remarriage, to gay marriage and polygamy of whatever sex.

Even accommodating these people with openness and accompainement isn't bringing them back.

I am not sure how many are leaving today because of the manner in which the liturgy is celebrated. But I know that if I restored the EF Mass to all the Masses in my parish I would lose more than half of my parishioners who are attending in the COVID-19 age. They don't want an all Latin Mass although an EF Mass in the vernacular might keep most.

And COVID-19 has shown many Catholics that they really don't need the discipline of fulfilling the Sunday obligation. They can sleep in or do something else they like better. In my diocese the obligation to attend is suspended now at least through July if not beyond.

What did Pope Benedict say about a "smaller but purer Church?"

Maybe orthodoxy, tradition and a strong sense of Catholic identity, beginning with the Magisterium down to the poor laity in the pews is the way to go even if the majority of Catholics don't want that and will leave over it.

What say you?

I JUST LOVE THIS PLACE

The church in the late 1800's with original pews with doors and middle partition:

The current pastor of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta, Georgia has had the pews marked off for physical distancing.

What's interest to me and I find a bit funny is that these pews are not the original pews from 1863 when this church was built but ones taken from the closed in 1970 Sacred Heart Church six blocks away. It is now a secular venue, Sacred Heart Cultural Center.

If you look, the blue tape cuts the pews in half. The original pews had a wooden partition now the middle. In fact the original pews had doors too! And back in the day you paid "pew rent" and God forbid anyone else sat in your pew. I think this was common in many places and in Protestant churches too.

As a young "Macy's" worker in downtown Augusta in the early 70's, I would often walk over to Most Holy Trinity for their daily 12:15 pm Mass. There was always a big crowd of downtown workers at this Mass on their lunch break and my lunch break too. I often went to the Vigil Mass on Saturday after work. It was at 6:30 PM at that time. Little did I know then, that I would be pastor of this same church from 1991 to 2004 and raise funds and oversee a major fundraiser to restor the "antebellum" new church which was begun in 1857 by the pastor who would become the second bishop of Savannah, John Barry, buried beneath the church with many other priests.

The church was completed in 1863 with slave labor, many of whom were baptized in the old church next to it built in 1810. After 1863 Catholic slaves were allowed, obligated, to attend Mass at the new church. Thus the parish was integrated during slavery. Interesting, no?

When I got there in 1991, the place was falling apart. By 1996 we began the restoration which took a year. It was completely replastered, repainted and redecorated. The crucifixion scene above the altar is original although restored with the side paintings new. The altar is the original altar and the Mensa was seperated from the reredos in 1967 thus used continuously even after Vatican II. No faux altar.

The three windows above the altar go back to 1863 and were restored. The side windows are from Meyers of Munich added in 1917 or so.

A new sacristy was added behind the church (altar) where the antebellum rectory mansion once was, torn town in the late 50's.

The choir loft was expanded and a second small bathroom added to the vestibule.

Conrad Schmidt and company restored the interior and used a new plastering technique that used a fiberglass mesh. They said this would prevent the plaster from disintegrating for 100 years. The interior still looks a new and fresh as it did after the restoration in 1997.

I ASK; YOU ANSWER!

Which way is the best way not to spread Covid-19, facing the congregation or not facing the congregation?

GESU CHURCH ROME AND ITS FAKE ALTAR AND FAKE EXTENDED ALTAR STAGE/PLATFORM

We all know Vatican II taught that magnificent churches needed this kind of altar and sanctuary. To question this is to question an infallible ecumenical council and the Magisterium, both ordinary and extraordinary and thus makes the questioning Catholic schismatic.

BEFORES AND AFTERS

Was it wise to hide the window half way?

Was it wise to move the ambo and baptismal font?

Was it wise to hide the Crucifix mural?

THIS IS WHY A GOODLY NUMBER OF AMERICANS ARE FUMING MASK MAD ABOUT MEDICAL EXPERTS AND POLITICAL LEADERS

Too many masks and mad as h....

Rich Lowry: Social Distancing Hypocrisy:

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had big news last week -- the city is opening up its iconic Lakefront Trail after months of being closed off as part of a COVID-19 lockdown.

That Lightfoot kept the trail closed even after Chicago had experienced large-scale Black Lives Matter marches -- thousands during the "Drag March for Change" -- is one small instance of the flagrant social distancing hypocrisy across the country in recent weeks.

If it's OK for throngs of people to pack the streets, and shout and chant to protest the death of George Floyd, it ought to be permissible for someone to ride a bike along the lakeside while keeping to him- or herself.

Yet, Mayor Lightfoot welcomed the protestors -- "We want people to come and express their passion," she said -- and still kept the trail shuttered.

Many of the same officials who were most zealous in locking down their states and cities instantly made an exception for Black Lives Matter protests. Their rigidity became laxity in a blink of an eye. Their metric for reopening wasn't the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines or any other public health measure, but the "wokeness" of the activity in question.

Visiting the deathbed of a loved one with COVID-19? Absolutely not. Having a proper funeral? No way. Gathering more than about 10 people at a graveside? No one should be allowed to put the public at risk in such a way.

Bringing thousands of strangers to march together for hours in spontaneous, disorderly groups? Thank you for your commitment to positive change.

Attending a church service? Well, maybe in a couple of months.

Holding a struggle session with religious trappings where people confess their racism and vow to work to defund the police? Please, let's have more.

To believe the leaders of Blue America, SARS-CoV-2 is the first virus in human history to have a social conscience -- virulent enough in the ordinary course of events to justify the most restrictive social controls; not such a big deal if it might get in the way of marches for social justice.

The likes of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have justified the different standards by arguing that fighting racism is important. Well, so is mourning your dead, keeping your business from being ground to dust and worshiping your God. It's a sign of a ludicrously blinkered worldview to believe that a protest march deserves more consideration than these other elemental human needs.

Another argument is that the protesters are willing to put their health on the line for their cause. But, until recently, it was said that anyone going outside wasn't just endangering themselves, but the most vulnerable people in our communities. Why wouldn't that be true of the Black Lives Matter marches, too?

Don't expect consistency, or even a serious attempt at it. More than 1,000 public health experts signed a letter calling the protests "vital to the national public health," thus immolating their credibility on a pyre of motivated reasoning. It's social distancing for people and activities they find uncongenial, and different rules for their ideological allies.

What a contemptible betrayal of the public trust.

Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.

(c) 2020 by King Features Synd., Inc

THE NEXT POPE

Highlights:



Full show:

I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THAT I AGREE WITH THE CONTROVERSIAL PRELATE IN THIS REGARD

Press title for full long article. My comments below.

Bishop Schneider: We shouldn’t reject Vatican II, but save what is ‘truly good’

'We have to evaluate and esteem all that is really and truly good in the Council texts, without irrationally and dishonestly closing the eyes of reason to what is objectively and evidently ambiguous and even erroneous in some of the texts'

My comments:

I think what the good bishop is writing makes perfect sense. Vatican II was a pastoral council carried out in the culture of the time, both religious and secular, that we can do anything and do it successfully. The space program of the USA in the early 60’s culminating with a man on the moon in 1969 was a part of this winning spirit of the times.

The triumphalism of those promoting Vatican II thought it would lead to a similar grand experience as the US space program, a new spring for the Church, not in heaven but on earth.

Much of Vatican II’s pastoral decrees are like a time capsule of the period of optimism. These are far from doctrinal let alone infallible, in terms of how to revise the Mass, sacraments, divine office as well as ecumenism, interfaith relations, religious liberty and dialogue with the world. 

Yet these things are presented in such a pre-Vatican II authoritarian way to make us think these are Infallible doctrines not just pastoral theology and in some cases pastoral theology run amuck.

But worse yet, is the “spirit of Vatican II” argument which exalts the commentary and opinion on Vatican II from bishops down to theologians and ordinary lay folk into a kind of infallible dogma. 

Let me be clear. We have a Tradition of authority in the magisterium of the Church and it is related to the pope and bishops in union with him. The Sensuum fideli has been used and misused to make democratic decisions concerning doctrine and pastoral responses. Another error. Of course, progressives take the opinions and commentary of the “faithful” not from the faithful, but the infidels. That’s not sensuum fideli, but rather sensuum infideli and the complete opposite of what faithful Catholics would promote and the official understanding of sensuum fideli,, which also is a theology, not a doctrine or dogma.

But when it comes to the implementation of a Council, the pope and the bishops are in charge. But that doesn’t mean that things can’t be reevaluated when good intentions go bad and the springtime of the Church which was expected becomes a long, dark winter. 

Critical thinking needs to take place concerning the documents of Vatican II and the good fruit that has come forth but also the deleterious results too numerous to list here. 

Pope Benedict in his brilliance, much missed, had the solution in his Christmas elocution to the cardinals and Curia of the church—renewal in continuity with what preceded Vatican II!

And Pope Benedict also said to the SSPX which he was trying to fully reintegrate into the Church that the older form of the Mass and sacraments and Divine Office and devotions were allowed under his continuity hermeneutic.

As well, the documents on ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, dialogue with the world and religious liberty were simply pastoral objectives and not matters of Catholic Faith and could be rejected for good reason.