THE CHURCH OF AMAZON, AND NOT THE ONE IN SOUTH AMERICA! GIVE THE CONSUMERS WHAT THEY WANT AND CALL IT LOVE DOING SO—THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMERISM AND IT HAS CORRUPTED MANY CATHOLICS AND IN VERY HIGH PLACES…

 The National catholic Reporter , to their credit, stop publishing unfiltered comments on their on-line platform years ago. Why? Because this liberal rag of a newspaper had readers and commenters who were the most vile, unhinged and post-Catholics to be found on earth.

Now the NcR simply publishes two or three “letters to the editor” on their on-line publication but very rarely. 

The one I publish in full below captures the post-Catholic Vatican II Church. It is a Church that fears giving moral certitude to her members, refuses to offend the customer and wants to give the consumer what she/he/they/ them/ it wants. It, like the hippie rebels of the 1960’s, wants flower power, no rules, no laws, no regulations, no moralisms, just love, love, love.

This mentality is in politics today and is being captured by the young socialist democrats who want communism in this country, want to defund the police, get rid of prisons and open the borders like Spain recently did, which was eye-opening, to say the least. 

In this alternative post-Catholic Vatican II Church, without borders or punishments, anything goes, not just for funerals, but for any liturgy of the Church, for any lifestyle, for anything, EXCEPT, rigidity, clarity and the right direction to the narrow road of salvation. 

This post-Catholic Vatican II Church refashions herself based upon what the customer/consumer wants. And it embraces every want and desire out of a post-Catholic Vatican II understanding of that vague term which has a variety of definition. 

This is the kumbaya Church that many have derided ever since that song began to be the most popular Catholic hymn of the 1960’s. There are many my age and older and a few younger who are still banging that drum of Kumbaya! 

The Kumbaya Church, though, isn’t the true Church; it is an inversion of the true Church and it does not proclaim Christ Who is Divine Truth.

A letter to the Editor from the National catholic Reporter:

Illinois funeral restrictions

Reading the article about refusing same-day vigils and barring family eulogies, I ask one question: Where is the compassion for the family(NCR, July 30, 2026)? This is the kind of rigidity that sends families out the door. This attitude, by a handful of bishops, is an exercise of power and patriarchy. "Father knows best," even if technically correct, is an exercise of misplaced authority and in some cases, a mean-spirited attempt at dominance. 

As a professional Lay Minister who served as a Parish Director, I have been to hundreds of funerals. Every eulogy, good or less so, has one thing at its core: Love. Love is what our faith is all about. It is no sin to express it inelegantly. It is always of God, for God is love. Adhering to the letter of the law without compassion, mercy and understanding that love is what drives the eulogy, is a failure of the cleric to understand the true meaning of love.

Pope Francis spoke many times of mercy and welcoming. How sad that families, in their grief, will feel unwanted and unwelcome. Some people will not take kindly to these actions. More and more families are having funerals out of the church for a variety of reasons. Decisions such as these will only increase that trend.

JAN RUIDL
Oak Creek, Wisconsin

POPE LEO IS MAKING A PILGRIMAGE TO ARGENTINA! IT WAS NEVER CLEAR TO ME WHY POPE FRANCIS NEVER RETURNED TO HIS HOMELAND—ANY THIOUGHTS ON THAT?

 His Holiness is also visiting Florida. I guess that is somewhat close to South America, but the Press Office doesn’t say where in Florida. Jacksonville isn’t too far from Hilton Head Island, SC so I could drive there!

Declaration of the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, 05.08.2026

Having accepted the invitation of the Heads of State and ecclesiastical Authorities of the respective countries, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV will undertake an Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, from 6 to 17 November 2026.  His Holiness will visit Montevideo, Paysandú and Florida, from 6 to 8 November; Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján, from 8 to 11 November; and Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa, from 11 to 17 November.

The itinerary for the Journey will be announced in due course.

IF ONLY, BUT WE LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD OF REALITY, NOT IF ONLY…

 Pope Benedict XVI famously said that those who had the greatest difficulty with the dumbing down of the Mass after Vatican II by Bishop Bugnini, but approved by Pope Paul VI, were those who had invested themselves into the New Liturgical Movement of the early 20th century, particularly in Europe. 

They actually prayed the Mass, were involved in chanting the chants and did not allow other devotions to replace their participation in the actual Mass. For these people, the changes to the Mass, especially the dumbing down of the Mass, was a real cross for them.

(Let me add my own pet peeve: It drives me crazy that at the TLM in Savannah and I presume elsewhere that Confessions are being heard at the same time as the Mass is being celebrated. And yes, a lot of people line up, during the Mass, mind you, to go to Confession and in fact they might even be in the Confessional during major parts of the Mass, like the Consecrations. This should be ANATHAMA! When at Mass, fully participate in the Mass, don’t be lining up for Confessions, or praying the Rosary or praying the Stations of the Cross!)

But those Catholics who were not as informed about the nature of the liturgy prior to Vatican II, allowed devotions to replace their actual participation in the Mass and refused to respond in any verbal or sung way at Mass, were pleased as punch with the new Mass, especially its vernacular, easy to sing hymns, relaxed reverence and emphasis on community rather than on God. They may have resisted at the beginning but eventually were won over by the new Mass and its oddities. 

Thus the liturgy wars began and rather quickly in the 1960’s. Those who want a conservative approach to the new Mass were a smaller group than those who wanted all the experimentation, especially with casualness, ugly, banal simplicity and new hymns of the folk and Broadway styles. 

An even smaller minority in the liturgical wars were those who wanted the old Mass to remain or at least be an option, because they understood it, participated in it in a actual way, both contemplative and active. 

I’ve often thought that if the new Mass had been designed and given rubrics for existing churches, meaning no changes to altars and other devotions designed into these older churches, that most people would truly think nothing really changed except that the Mass was now in the vernacular. 

There would be liturgical peace in the 1960’s and continuing to this day even if the TLM never had more widespread allowances in local parishes. 

AS I AM READING THE MUST READ "A LIBERAL REVOLUTION: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VATICAN II IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BALTIMORE" I'VE GAINED NEW INSIGHTS INTO HOW THE CORRUPT CELEBRATION OF THE BUGNINI MASS CAME ABOUT AND WITHOUT TOO MANY CORRECTIONS

 I've really enjoyed reading    “A liberal Revolution: The implementation of Vatican II in the Archdiocese of Baltimore” as it has brought back so many memories of my time in Baltimore between 1976 and 1980. 

The author does describe my seminary and the influence it had not only on Baltimore but also the Church throughout the USA.

He describes the haphazard way the changes to the Mass came about. I wasn't in Baltimore at that time but a young teenager in Augusta and there are may  similarities.

We were basically cooked like frogs in a crockpot. The first changes I remember was the TLM facing the congregation with some vernacular, especially those spoken by the congregation. This was the 1964-65 Missal with only minor revisions.

We thought that was it.

Then by 1966, we were introduced to the PATFOTA being replaced by a Penitential Act, what may pastor called the shortening of the Mass, which everyone loved. Most loved the vernacular too, but it was still the TLM, basically.

Then, the Roman Canon was prayed out loud and in English--that was great, but it still had all the strict rubrics and rituals that now we could see as the priest faced us. 

Then, new Eucharistic Prayers were introduced maybe around 1968 and these stripped down the rubrics of those and even of the Roman Canon.

Then on the First Sunday of Advent, 1969, the new Roman Missal only in the vernacular (English) was introduced along with a new dumbed down English translation of the Mass. The new lectionary did not accompany it, so I am not sure how they adapted the TLM lectionary to the new "Sacramentary" but the new lectionary came a year or so later.

In that about 5 year period of chaotic changes and wondering when it would ever stop, most were glad that finally we had the new Roman Missal.  

I entered the seminary in 1976 only 6 years after the new Sacramentary and may 5 years after the new lectionary. At that point I could not really remember the TLM with which I grew up and experienced basically until 1966 or 67.

And most Catholics still going to Mass didn't realize that the Mass had changed that much--for them the biggest change was not  the Order of the Mass, but that the Mass was now in English, the vernacular. 

Let's fast forward to today. Some Catholics want only the old Latin Mass with its complex order. There would be mass rebellion of those, the majority still going to Mass, if the vernacular were taken away. They might deal well with some Latin but not the TLM with its lectionary. 

And the difference for them, really isn't the order and complex rubrics or even ad orientem--it is the Latin that they are glad is gone and that the Mass isn't as dour, i.e. reverent, as it is when in Latin and Latin chants--they love contemporary vernacular settings of the Mass and contemporary upbeat hymns and anthems. 

The majority today also love priest-celebrants who entertain them, and act like clowns during Mass or ad lib over and over again. 

Thus, in order to get back to what the Mass should be, we can't force the TLM on anyone but give in the Vernaculars we have, the Order and Rubics of the TLM as an addendum to the current Bugnini Roman Missal.

And that needs to be explained well to congregations who experience this. Then we might in 60 years recover what was lost by the poor implementation of Sacrosanctum Concilium.  

THE NcR’S ARTICLE ON THE AFTERMATH OF THE FSSPX SCHISM IS FAIR AND BALANCED, GOOD FOR THE NcR—BUT LET ME RANT A BIT!

 I’ve written this before, but I think the hysteria about the FSSPX from the Vatican to local dioceses is overblown and so very unecumenical! 

The estimate about the number of Catholics in the USA going to FSSPX chapels either for Mass or actually joining this schismatic sect is about 25,000 Catholics.

Yet, no one is hysterical over the millions of Catholics in the USA who have joined non-denominational Protestant sects—-millions! 

WHAT’S UP WITH THAT????

At least the schismatic Catholics going to the FSSPX are in more full communion with the Church than the non-denominational schismatics and certainly the millions of Catholics who have become “nones!”

Let’s get real about this!

Read the NcR article by pressing the title:

After SSPX schism, some Catholics urge greater access to the older Latin Mass

POPE LEO MEETS WITH HIS NEW EWTN PREFECT FOR COMMUNICATIONS AT THE VATICAN—DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THIS GOOD NEWS

 For the orthodox Catholics in the Church, the naming of the EWTN COO, Dr. Maria Montserrat Alvarado, as the new Prefect for Communications in the Vatican should bring great joy and relief. 

For the heterodox, it would be like hiring Thomas C Fox, Editor Emeritus of the National catholic Reporter—could you imagine, just imagine, how the heterodox would be rejoicing and the NcR in particular blubbering about it!

This is from Sileri non possum:

This morning, the Holy Father received Dr Maria Montserrat Alvarado, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, in audience. Leo XIV’s decision to meet her so promptly, as plans are being drawn up to reorganise the Holy See’s communications operation, is significant. In more than a year as Pope, he has received Paolo Ruffini only rarely and has never held private talks with the other leading figures in Vatican communications, including Matteo Bruni, Andrea Tornielli and Andrea Monda, whom he has met only at public events.

Read the rest here at Silieri non possum

CARDINAL ZUPPI, A TRULY PROGRESSIVE PROGRESSIVE!

 

ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE CORDILEONE CORRECTS CARDINAL ROCHE ON ETWN’S “THE WORLD OVER”! THIS IS GREAT AS THE “COO” OF EWTN IS ABOUT TO BECOME THE PREFECT OF COMMUNICATIONS AT THE VATICAN AND VATICAN NEWS!

 Archbishop Cordileone, maybe a cardinal one day, speaks frankly to EWTN (Vatican New) Raymond Aroyo about a number of subjects.

Keep in mind that the good Archbishop of San Francisco celebrates the TLM frequently, ordained several deacons and subdeacons in Italy at the beginning of July and of course met with Pope Leo about his appointment to the Supreme Apostolic Signatura. 

Keep in mind, besides His Excellency’s celebrating regularly the TLM and the Bugnini Mass in a TLM way, he also corrected US Representative Nancy Pelosi and asked that she not receive Holy Communion because of her public heterodox and heretical embrace of the Democratic Party’s pro-abortion and pro-death politics. 

A great must-see interview:

ONCE AGAIN, POPE LEO REVERSES POPE FRANCIS AND THIS IS A BIG REVERSAL—THUS POPE LEO CONTINUES TO REVERSE POPE FRANCIS POLICIES—IT DOESN’T TAKE A LEAP THAT HIS HOLINESS COULD ALSO REVERSE MANY ASPECTS OF POPE FRANCIS’ ILL ADVISED AND UGLY TRADITIONIS CUSTODIS!

 This is from Sileri non possum, which has completely revamped its website and made it international with an entirely English speaking version. It now competes with Crux, the Pillar and other social media Catholic news sites! Bookmark it!

Press the title for the full article:

Leo XIV’s new Fundamental Law: what changes in Vatican City

On 31 July, the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, the Pope promulgated the text that entirely replaces the one signed by Francis in 2023. The Fundamental Law is the "constitution" of the world’s smallest state.

ARE THESE CATHOLICS, ALL IN COMMUNION WITH THE POPE, UNIFIED IN THEIR STYLE OF LITURGY—NO, BUT THEY ARE UNIFIED IN JESUS CHRIST WHO IS TRULY PRESENT IN ALL THESE LITURGIES!

 

I hope Pope Leo XIV reminds Cardinal Roche, the Prefect for Dicastery for Divine Worship that the Church is united in Christ, not in the rigid uniformity of the style of Divine Worship.

Cardinal Roche seems to think that the entire Church, east and west, should be celebrating the Bugnini Mass in order to bring the entire Church into liturgical unity, thus very little room for the TLM or any other rite of the Catholic Church, East or West. It is truly a shocking assertion coming from a Cardinal who is the Prefect for the Dicastery of Divine Worship. Did I say SHOCKING? 

Fortunately, thus far, the Cardinal’s wrong and inane words about liturgical unity given in an interview printed by the Tablet hasn’t made its way to Vatican News at all. The good Cardinal also asserted that Pope Leo will not suppress or modify Traditionis Custodis, even to rehabilitate Pope Benedict’s authentic vision for liturgical unity and peace as he articulated in Summorum Pontificum!

Hopefully Pope Leo isn’t as rigid about liturgical unity as Cardinal Roche is—time will tell. But in my most humble opinion, I don’t think His Holiness is rigid!

All these “Masses” below are fully celebrating our Liturgical unity in the same Christ with the Vicar of Christ the visible head of the Church. Jesus Christ is the source of our unity as Catholics and all that He teaches, His Divine Truths. But our liturgical expressions of that Catholic Unity isn’t liturgical as our liturgies, thanks be to God, are quite diverse and flexible!

Yours truly, your friendly flexible post-Vatican II priest completely in union and unity with the Catholic Church and all her diverse and uniquely celebrated Divine Liturgies (Masses). No rigid uniformity with me!

Yours truly celebrating Mass is the Bugnini Mass facing the assembly! Yes, we are all experiencing Catholic Church unity here!!!!

Yours truly, celebrating this Mass too which is the Bugnini Mass facing the assembly! All of us are in the full union and unity with the Catholic Church!!!!

Yes! Yours truly celebrating  this one too which is the Bugnini Mass facing the congregation, my first Mass, June 8, 1980!

Yes, this one too yours truly and it is the Bugnini Mass ad orientem! Yet we are all in union and full unity with the Catholic Church, East and West!

This one is not me celebrating the TLM, but it is at my former parish in Augusta where I made sure by renovating the altar with its once attached reredos, it could celebrate the Bugnini Mass either ad orientem or toward the nave. This one, though, which I did not foresee in 1996 when we did the renovation, is the TLM Mass! Yes, the TLM Mass!

This is yours truly celebrating the TLM Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Savannah, Georgia. This parish primarily celebrates the Bugnini Mass facing the assembly, yet we are all united in Christ at these diverse Masses! This parish primarily celebrates the Bugnini Mass facing the assembly and more than one Sunday Mass! Yet with all the many Sunday Masses, TLM and Bugnini, the parish experiences Catholic unity so prized by Pope Leo!

This is the Anglican Ordinariate Mass, celebrated in its own distinctive way with many aspects from the Protestant Anglican Church’s liturgical patrimony, yet we Catholics are all united even though through diverse liturgical forms!

This is the Eastern Rite’s Melkite Rite Divine Liturgy (Greek Catholic, fully in union with the Vicar of Christ). Their Divine Liturgy is quite different from the Latin Rite’s TLM, Bugnini Mass and Ordinariate Mass, yet, even though of the Eastern Church, we are all united though in diverse liturgical forms!!!! Praise God!

This is the Congolese (Zaire or new African Rite) Mass. Very diverse from the traditional Bugnini Mass but yet we are all united as Catholics though through diverse liturgical forms !!!!

IT SEEMS LIKE OVERNIGHT CATHOLIC FUNERAL RITES GOT CORRUPTED BY THINGS NO CATHOLIC PRIEST SHOULD HAVE ALLOWED BUT DID OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL THESE BECAME NORMAL

 I think the bishops in our country who are trying to put the Vaseline back into the tube will find that quite slippery to do.

We all know that since the Introit, Offertory and Communion antiphons have become optional as well as the chants appropriate for the Final Commendation, music at funeral Masses is simply inane. I think everyone wants “the You Who” song, aka, “On Eagle Wings”, “Be Not Afraid”, “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art”. And yes, there is a nod to tradition with any version of “Ave Maria” and of course “Panis Angelicus.” 

But I don’t want to talk about that.

Let’s talk about eulogies given by family or friends. Fortunately I stopped those years ago and the parishes where I assist in retirement have done so too. We tell them to do it at the Vigil of the Deceased after the Prayer Service. Only problem is that very few now use funeral homes for any kind of vigil—these are omitted altogether. When I was first ordained the vast majority of funerals had all three movements of the Funeral Rite, the Vigil the night before, the Funeral Mass the next day and the Rite of Committal immediately after the Funeral Mass. 

And now with cremation and experience with delaying funerals during Covid 19, people wait weeks, months, years for a Funeral Service of some kind—no one is in any rush to say good bye to grandma—they wait it out and then forget to do anything!

Today, most Catholics are cremated, there’s no vigil, family members drag the ashes in some kind of container to the Church (I had someone who brought their deceased mother from years ago to be at the same funeral Mass with her husband!) And then after Mass there is no rite of committal. They do what they please with the pulverized bones, teeth, dental implants and artificial joints of their loved ones.

Some bishops are insisting that the body burial is to be preferred all the while allowing parishes to build columbarias right next to the church! Really?

And if there is a body, but no vigil, visitation takes place in the narthex an hour before the funeral Mass. If a church has a nice narthex, that doesn’t seem so bad to me, but some bishops are now forbidding this.

I wish they would forbid “The You Who” song and insist on the propers for the Mass, but I digress. 

Finally bishops are forbidding eulogies. Thank you. Can inappropriate things be said by family members and friends in the Sacred Confines of the Holy Mass? You bet ya! 

I learned all kinds of things about a saintly grandfather from his son who bragged about his dad being a philanderer and his many conquests even in old age. Everyone laughed, except me, I look dour! 

No nothing can go wrong with eulogies and an invitation from one family member who speaks for anyone and everyone to come and say something! Either they are canonized to sainthood or little devils! 

Can the funeral rites be fixed. Can Celebrations of Life ever become Requiem Masses again? 

No, except in TLM communities. 

WOW! WOW! WOW! A MUST READ! IF YOU WANT A GREAT HISTORY OF LIBERAL HETERODOXY IN THE CHURCH OF THE USA BEGINNING IN 1965, ALTHOUGH THE FOCUS ON THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BALTIMORE, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU!

 I just ordered the Kindle version of “A liberal Revolution: The implementation of Vatican II in the Archdiocese of Baltimore”.

This is of particular interest to me because I went to seminary in 1976 at St. Mary’s in Baltimore on the heals of this revolution as it was being implemented.

This book is an invaluable history of Vatican II in Baltimore especially beginning in 1965.

It is a bit nostalgic for me and people my age. It is eye-opening for those who did not live through it and think the Church only began with Pope Francis and the conservatives he alienated who prior to Pope Francis were the most ultra-montane Catholics to be found in the face of the revolutionaries this book describes.

Michael Lewis of “Where Peter is”, aka, “Where Pope Francis Was” would do well to read this book to get educated on the immediate post-Vatican II period in this country and how liberals were the first to redicule and reject papal teachings and for the most part, Vatican II itself when properly understood and implemented according to the hermeneutic of continuity not rupture.

Order this book today! A fascinating read for every Catholic in every diocese in the USA!

A Liberal

Revolution: The Implementation of Vatican II in the Archdiocese of Baltimore 

by  Hanael Bianchi  (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition

5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars     (10)

#1 New Releasein History of Catholicism

See all formats and editions

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Although the Second Vatican Council has generated a large scholarly corpus, A Liberal Revolution is the first history to be written of a diocese in the years immediately following it. Using the important see of Baltimore as a case study, and drawing exclusively on primary sources such as newspaper accounts and archival materials, Hanael Bianchi reconstructs how the Council was implemented and experienced on the local level. The claim that the Church "embraced the modern world" after Vatican II is well known; this book sharpens it by focusing specifically on liberalism as the framework through which implementation took place. The study begins by tracing the dismantling of inherited traditions, then turns to the rise of individualism within Catholic life and governance, before arriving at its most original contribution: an analysis of the emergence of a dense church bureaucracy that embodied and enforced a liberal worldview. Although the story told in these pages is a tragedy, A Liberal Revolution is no polemic; rather, it is a work of historical analysis grounded in years of research. It will not only contribute to the scholarly understanding of Vatican II and its aftermath but also offer guidance to Catholics seeking a path toward genuine renewal, grounded in a thorough and accurate assessment of what actually happened.

https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Revolution-Implementation-Archdiocese-Baltimore-ebook/dp/B0H571Y7G6/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0

IS POPE LEO TRYING REALLY, REALLY, REALLY HARD TO PREVENT CARDINAL MARX FROM GOING INTO SCHISM?

We know that Pope Benedict XVI tried really, really, really hard to prevent the FSSPX from going into schism. Even Pope Francis offered them olive branches to keep them in full communion. But the FSSPX thought Pope Leo (Lion) would be a lamb and that they could push His Holiness around. 

Pope Leo certainly tried to prevent the FSSPX schism, but to no avail. The hubris of the FSSPX overwhelmed their common sense and logic and they directly disobeyed the Vicar of Christ, God’s visible head of the Church on earth. Jesus, of course, is the Invisible Head of the Church—the pope is a sacramental sign of Christ. 

Admittedly, I am putting two and two together, not to get five, as someone famously said, but to get four.

Pope Leo (Lion) met with Cardinal Marx this Wednesday morning. He also met with Cardinal Ferenandez, the Prefect for the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith. 

I have to say, that Cardinal Fernandez under Pope Leo (Lion) isn’t as flaky as he was under Pope Francis. So I am sure that Fernandez is also warning Cardinal Marx and the other schismatic-tending German and Germanic bishops about schism. 

What do you think about that?

OH YES, THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BALTIMORE IN THE LATE 1970’S, WHEN I WAS IN THE SEMINARY, ST. MARY’S SEMINARY AND UNIVERSITY AT ROLAND PARK, 1976-80!

 When I entered St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore’s swanky Roland Park suburb,, I was 22 years old.

I had never experienced progressive, or what was called then, liberal Catholicism, although I read about it in Our Sunday Visitor and National Catholic Register newspapers available in my home parish in Augusta, Georgia. That parish was a bulwark against liberalism, but embraced the new vernacular Mass, but kneeling for Holy Communion remained in place even when I went to the seminary in 1976–no Eucharistic ministers or standing for Holy Communion until the early 1980’s. 

1Peter5 has an article on the liberal/progressive decline in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. When I was there, we had the retired Cardinal Shehan but the liberal, quite liberal new Archbishop was Archbishop William Borders, a nice, gentle man but hell bent on the spirit of Vatican II and allowing all kinds of experimentations. 

What the article in 1Peter5 does not indicate nor the summary of a book on Baltimore they provide is the impact that Saint Mary Seminary and University had on the archdiocese and way beyond, like the Diocese of Savannah. 

It was there that I saw wild experimentation with the liturgy, priests celebrating the Mass their way and each having a particular style. One priest, a Biblical scholar, felt the Liturgy of the Word was the most important part of the Mass. So after the entrance song, he did not begin the Mass with the Sign of the Cross. He simply said “the Lord be with you” and then Let us Pray for the Collect and we sat down for the the Liturgy of the Word—it was a fast way to get to it, no?

But in many ways our seminary was heterodox and subversive in bringing to the Baltimore Archdiocese and beyond its particular version of Catholic Lite, heterodox Catholicism.

And poor old Pope Paul VI and then Pope John Paul II were excoriated for their vision of the Church and unwillingness to ordain women, promote inclusive language and embrace the sexual revolution and make homosexual sex and relationships on par with heterosexual ones. 

Our seminary saw liberal theologians there and elsewhere as a parallel magisterium and just as authoritative as anything the popes in Rome were teaching as backwards as they were. 

Today, Baltimore is a mere shadow of what it was even in the 1970’s. Many prospering parishes at that time, even with the liberal upheavals, are now closed, religious orders gone and many institutions shuttered too. Those Catholics who attend Mass and are faithful are a mere shadow of the number of Catholics who no longer attend Mass, have their children baptized, let alone get married in the Church and have Catholic funerals. There is no longer the old saying about cultural Catholics, being hatched, matched and dispatched! 

Press the 1Peter5 title for their full article—it gave me PTST:

Liturgical Reform Case Study: the Catholic City of Baltimore

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ARCHBISHOP CORDILEONE’S APPOINTMENT TO THE SUPREME APOSTOLIC SIGNATURA!

One of the new subdeacons for the institute of Christ the King, Sovernign Priest, ordained by Archbishop Cordileone on July First in Florence, Italy, was at the High Mass I celebrated for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost with the commemoration of Saint Anne, Jesus’ Grandmother. The fresh subdeacon, visiting his parents in Savannah, is seated and wearing his beretta:

This is the ordination of six subdeacons and eight deacons by Archbishop Cordileone in Florence Italy on July 2:

The subdeacon at my Savannah’s TLM for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost is the third one from the right:

Press title from  THE CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC DAILY:

“What the Cordileone move to the Vatican highest court means”

The context turns the appointment into a gesture

MONEY-BYTE:

The renewal comes as the five-year term of the members appointed by Francis in June 2021 expires: Cardinals Müller, Tobin, Grech and Harvey thus conclude their mandate on the tribunal, in an ordinary transition that gives way to a new generation of canonists.

The appointment of the Archbishop of San Francisco is, by far, the one with the greatest ecclesial significance. Cordileone is no newcomer to the Palazzo della Cancelleria: a canonist by training, he worked as an official of the Apostolic Signatura itself in the 1990s, before his episcopate, so he knows from within the machinery of the tribunal to which he now returns as a judge.

But it is the context that turns the appointment into a gesture. Cordileone is one of the few diocesan ordinaries in the world who regularly celebrates the traditional Roman rite. On July 2, he conferred the subdiaconate and diaconate on fourteen seminarians of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in Gricigliano (in Florence, Italy), in ceremonies that were completed the following day by Cardinal Burke —former prefect of the same Signatura — with the ordination of four new priests.

Just days later, the archbishop publicly reacted to the episcopal consecrations of the Society of Saint Pius X in Écône, stating that they reflect “a growing lack of trust that has been building for a long time,” calling for “sincere and honest” dialogue between Rome and the Fraternity and requesting that access to the traditional Mass be facilitated “so that our faithful do not feel obliged to seek spiritual nourishment outside the family in communion with Rome.”

That Leo XIV incorporates him into the Church’s supreme tribunal three weeks after those statements admits few ambiguous readings: far from placing him outside the perimeter of pontifical trust, that discourse has not been an obstacle to entrusting him with a function of legal guarantee at the heart of the Curia. At the most delicate moment in the relationship between Rome and the traditional world since 1988, the Pope seats on the Signatura an archbishop who celebrates the ancient rite, ordains for an ex Ecclesia Dei institute and calls for a review of the liturgical status quo.

EVERY TIME CARDINAL GRECH OR ANY OF HIS COMMITTEE MEMBERS SPEAK ABOUT SYNODALITY, THEY GUARANTEE ITS DEMISE—WHAT THEY SAY IS KAMALA HARRIS-TYPE OF WORD SALAD OR WHAT SOME CALL A NOTHING BURGER!

Am I the only one when he reads Vatican News’ articles on synodality scratches his head and wonders what the hell are they talking about? These articles and those who are quoted have to be the most vapid people in all of Catholicism. It’s shocking, alarming and downright dispiriting! 

EWTN News hasn’t taken over Vatican News yet, but let us pray that when it does, through its COO, Ms. Maria Montserrat Alvarado, the soon to be new Prefect of the Vatican’s Discastery for Communication, effective November 1st, I predict we will see less nothing burgers and word salads from Vatican News! Do I hear an “AMEN!?”

Press titles for nothing burgers and word salads, à la Kamala Harris, on syndality:

Cardinal Grech looks at the synodal journey for the Church in Asia

Synod publishes ‘Recollecting’ resource for 2027 local Church assemblies

POPE LEO MAKES A VERY INTERESTING APPOINTMENT TO THE SUPREME TRIBUNAL OF THE APOSTOLIC SIGNATURA, ANY OTHER ONES IN THAT CROWD?

 Appointment of members of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

The Holy Father has appointed the following as members of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura: Their Excellencies Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone of San Francisco, United States of America; Bishop Krzysztof Nitkiewicz of  Sandomierz, Poland; Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, former Secretary of the DIcastery for Legislative Texts; Bishop Edward M. Lohse of Kalamazoo, United States of America; the Reverend Eduardo Baura de la Peña, full professor at the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy; the Reverend Gianpaolo Montini, full professor at the Faculty of Canon Law of the Collegium Maximum of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; and the Reverend Father Ulrich Rhode, S.J., full professor at the Faculty of Canon Law of the Collegium Maximum of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

AT WHAT POINT DOES A SCHISM TRENDING BISHOP, WHO COULD ALSO BE A CARDINAL, OR A SCHISM TRENDING COUNTRY ANNOY THE POPE SO MUCH IN TERMS OF CANONICAL IRREGULARITIES IF NOT OUTRIGHT HERESY, GET EXCOMMUNICATED BY THE POPE FOR SCHISM?

While nothing that the SSPX has done has compromised its sacraments, except those which require canonical imprimaturs from the Church, the line in the sand they crossed that made them truly schismatic was the illicit, but valid, ordination of bishops. They, to His Holiness face, disobeyed what Pope Leo told them not to do. It was a bold act of schism, which in my most humble opinion, the FSSPX wanted and they enjoyed all the publicity surrounding their schism as a worldwide advertisement for their sect which they hope to grow. And it may be working!

We know that Pope Francis warned the Germans over and over again about their heretical and schismatic leanings. The Germans for their part, ignored Pope Francis or played the game with His Holiness recognizing the smokescreen offered to them by the then reigning pope.

Pope Leo seems to be a pope who doesn’t play games with the FSSPX or the schism, heresy leaning Germans. 

What will be the canonical line in the sand for Pope Leo when he will finally act toward German schismatics as he has acted toward the FSSPX schismatics?

I think there are two possibilities. 

The first has to do with the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and its formal corruption by same sex blessings in a formal liturgical way. Of course this extends to all of the LGBTQ+++ desires for inclusivity of their ideologies and ideologues in all aspects of the Church, not only the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, but Holy Orders too. 

Cardinal Marx seems to be one of the candidates heading for canonical censure if not downright excommunication. You can read about that HERE. 

The second, but related to the first is the illicit and also invalid ordination of women to the diaconate and possibly to the priesthood by one or more German bishops or others bishops from Germanic leaning countries. This has not happened yet, but in my most humble opinion, I think it is a very real possibility and perhaps in the near future. But I am not clairvoyant or am I? 

Obviously, these bishops and those invalidly ordained would incur automatic excommunication. But at what point does it affect an entire diocese or an entire nation of Catholics? That remains to be seen. 

WHERE PETER IS COMPLAINS BITTERLY ABOUT “CONSERVATIVE” CATHOLICS WHO BEGAN TO BE OVERLY CRITICAL OF POPE FRANCIS AND SOME OF HIS POLARIZING TEACHINGS AND POLICIES AND THE NATIONAL cATHOLIC REPORTER COMPLAINS ABOUT THE FSSPX GLORIFYING THEIR SCHISM, BUT NEITHER COMPLAIN ABOUT THE LIBERAL SCHISM IN THE CHURCH THAT BEGAN IMMEDIATELY AFTER VATICN II

 Should Roman Catholic Women Priests bishops be invited to certain Vatican Masses and Divine Office Liturgies. Are the FSSPX worse than Roman Catholic Women Priests Roman Catholic Parishes? I ask; you answer:

https://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/index.php/

And this article in the National catholic Reporter laments the horrors of the schismatic and gloating FSSPX parish in Boston along with their fiddleback vestments—such horrors! 

Since the FSSPX is in schism like the Eastern Orthodox Church, shouldn’t the NcR and others be more conciliatory towards the FSSPX as they are towards the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion and others Protestant Sects.

Shouldn’t the FSSPX be invited by the Pope to certain Masses at St. Peter’s as Eastern Orthodox Prelates are on a regular basis?  Both now share in the glories of not being in full Communion with the Church but the Orthodox are invited to participate in papal liturgies and so have been the Anglicans and other Protestant clergy—is it time now for the FSSPX bishops to be invited? 

SSPX excommunication hasn't stopped Boston church from defying the Vatican

I don’t like using the terms “conservative and liberal” to describe Catholics and what they believe as these are political terms not religious. I prefer heterodox and orthodox.

Mike Lewis complains bitterly that “conservative” Catholics known for their ultramontanism prior to Pope Francis became like the “liberal” Catholics who denigrated Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI for their “conservative” magisterial teachings and this disobedience and disrespect came from cardinals, other bishops, other clergy, the religious and laity in the Church. 

“Liberals” can be heterodox just as “conservatives” can be heterodox. 

I am not sure that when “conservative” Catholics turned on Pope Francis for what they perceived to be his polarizing, incoherent teachings and policies that that was heterodoxy although it may well have been mortal sins against charity in terms of how they did it. 

But I do think that when “liberal” Catholics demand that women or whatever gender or form of marriage an individual may have, they should be ordained to Holy Orders, celebrate their sexual relations with anyone or everyone as Holy Matrimony and that the Most Holy Eucharist should be distributed to everyone, everyone, everyone, no matter their religion or moral status before God. That is heterodoxy pure and simple and the greatest crisis facing the Church today.

It isn’t conservative’s heterodoxy or sins against charity that is the Church’s greatest crisis or the FSSPX schism. It is the liberal schism that is the greatest crisis in the Church today, but not acknowledged in the highest places of the Church. 

LITURGICAL INCULTURATION AND UNIVERSAL COMPREHENSIBILITY—CAN SOMEONE HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND THE PRAYERFUL, COMTEMPLATIVE AND WORSHIP ASPECT OF THIS AZTEC PROCESSION INTO MASS? I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE POINT OF THIS IS DURING THE CELEBRATION OF MASS—CERTAINLY THERE IS A CATHOLIC REASON FOR IT, OTHER THAN BEING A PHOTO OP FOR THE CONGREGATION AS THEY PASSIVELY WATCH THIS SPECTACLE, BEAUTIFUL AS IT IS—BUT I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES—SHOULDN’T CATHOLIC WORSHIP BE COMPREHENSIBLE SINCE THAT IS WHAT VATICAN II ASKED?

After more than 46 years of priestly ordination, I cannot explain to anyone some aspects of inculturation that certain bishops and other clergy promote and design. I don’t understand what is going on although I do know what the point of a procession is at Mass, but not this kind of procession—what is the Catholic significance of this—it isn’t obvious to me or even comprehensible. 

I would love to hear why certain cultures and organizations get to inculturate the Mass and what the purpose of that is within the context of the Mass.

The Aztec procession into the Cathedral of Los Angeles is a case in point. I am not sure what the point of this is; what its connection is to prayer and contemplation at Mass and why it is done. 

My uneducated eyes tell me this is a performance when you look at the laity seated in their pews, they seem to see it that way too—there is no aspect of prayer or worship coming from them. They are looking at a spectacle and are using their cameras to capture what is going on so entertaining this is. 

Should we ancestors of the immigrants from England who formed the original 13 colonies celebrate our culture at Mass by dressing as the English dressed at the time of colonization?

Should the redneck culture of the south be celebrated at Mass, along with the confederate flag, pickup trucks and all other vulgar aspects of that culture?

Should the cowboy and cowgirl culture of the USA be inculturated into Mass?

Should the country music culture of Nashville be inculturated into the Mass?

What in the Name of God and all is Holy is the purpose of inculturation at Mass, especially when no one seems to comprehend what the point of it is and if it is prayer and worship based upon Catholic conversion? Inculturation to me seems to celebrate cultures and not the One, Holy Sacrifice of Christ and the worship due to Christ alone during the Mass. 

I am asking a question, because when I look at the photo of the Aztec procession into the Los Angles Cathedral for Mass, I don’t understand what the point of it is.

CLUELESS ON HILTON HEAD ISLAND!