VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE; PRAYER IS THE SOLUTION, CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER!

ORDINARY FORM MASS IN WYOMING

Do you notice a hermeneutics of continuity here?

ALLIGATORGATE SCANDAL ON HILTON HEAD ISLAND! TOURISTS NOT OBSERVING PHYSICAL DISTANCING OR WEARING MASKS AS THEY HARASS 100 YEAR OLD BEHEMOTH OF AN ALLIGATOR CAPTURED AND LATER EUTHANIZED!

This is a part of southern culture and the 19 year old ringleader, pictured at the snout of the giant gator is a classic example of a southern good ole boy. Please make suggestions on how we priests in the south can create an inculturated southern rite for the Mass. I guess one suggestion would be alligator cinctures and buskens!

From this morning’s Hilton Head Island’s Island Packet Newspaper:

LISA WILSON
AND KATHERINE KOKAL

The Town of Hilton Head Island is investigating the circumstances surrounding a massive alligator’s removal from a lagoon at a Hilton Head Island mini-golf course this week, the town manager said Thursday.

The male alligator’s capture and euthanasia Tuesday provoked outrage, which escalated after photos and videos posted online showed the animal being manhandled after its capture.

On Thursday afternoon, Town Manager Steve Riley said the town is “deeply concerned about the egregious and unacceptable behavior” that took place during the alligator’s removal.

Hilton Head officials are also investigating Critter Management’s removal permit, which the town issued to the company.

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE ALLIGATOR?

Legendary Golf contacted Critter Management, a local animal control company, on Tuesday evening to remove the gator over concerns for their customers’ safety, said Joey Maffo, the 19-year-old grandson of founder Joe Maffo.

The elder Maffo is known in the community for his presentations at the Coastal Discovery Museum, where visitors can hold baby alligators and other animals. In 2014, Maffo’s company lost its contract with South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for relocating an alligator the state agency’s rules said should have been euthanized.

Joey Maffo, who led the removal of the animal, said a crowd of around 100 people gathered as a Critter Management team captured the 12 ½-foot gator at Legendary Golf.

Although the alligator wasn’t acting aggressively, Joey Maffo said it could have been dangerous to mini-golfers who got too close to the murky lagoon where it was hidden.

Once the alligator’s limbs were secured, Joey Maffo said he invited the bystanders to come closer.

“That was actually on me,” he said. “As soon as I taped the gator, I thought it was a good opportunity to get people to understand how big and powerful it was.”

He said between 20 and 30 people took turns riding the alligator and taking photos and videos.

One Georgia woman posted a set of photos on Instagram and tagged Legendary Golf. In the photos, she’s riding the gator as Joey Maffo holds its taped snout.

“Well this happened today!!” she wrote in her caption. “One for the books!!”

The response from islanders, however, was outrage.

As videos and photos spread of the incident, hundreds took issue with the “sideshow” created by the alligator’s capture just off U.S. 278.

Maj. Bob Bromage, spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, said two deputies responded to the scene once the animal was loaded onto a tow truck to be taken away around 5:45 p.m.

Deputies diverted traffic and attempted to disperse the crowds, he said.

On Wednesday, Bromage said deputies hadn’t responded to the issue. The calls were classified as “disturbances,” not “animal-related.”

MAKING THE ALLIGATOR A ‘FIASCO’

Large or aggressive alligators removed from a populated area usually are shot and killed, but people took issue with the cavalier treatment of the animal.

Those who rode the alligator — Joey Maffo characterized them as mostly excited tourists — were abusing the animal, the critics said.

“I didn’t know how it would look to all the people online,” Maffo said. “They’re just tourists. They want to see a gator up (close). … I was just trying to get everybody to understand how big and powerful they are.”

On Thursday, Joey and Joe Maffo apologized for the incident.

“It certainly wasn’t our intent to exploit this alligator,” Joe Maffo told reporters at Critter Management’s headquarters. “We had no intentions of making it look like a fiasco.”

SCDNR RESPONSE TO CAPTURE

SCDNR issued a written statement Wednesday night stating that the removal and euthanasia of the alligator were legal, but the agency did not condone the manner in which the animal was treated.

“The capture and handling of alligators should be left to experienced professionals, and allowing untrained people to interact with an alligator is irresponsible and puts those people at risk,” alligator biologist Morgan Hart said in the statement. “Agents contracted by SCDNR are not allowed to involve untrained members of the public in the capture or handling of alligators.”

SCDNR spokesman David Lucas later clarified that Critter Management was not contracted by the state agency in this case. Instead, he said, the business was working for the owners of the mini-golf course under a permit issued to the town of Hilton Head.

“The tag and permit used for the removal of this alligator was not explicitly issued by SCDNR for this animal, but for any alligator deemed a nuisance on various properties located within the Town of Hilton Head,” Hart’s statement reads.

The Town of Hilton Head has a Nuisance Alligator permit and tags to use at its discretion within the town limits, according to Hart.

“One of those tags was utilized to legally remove and euthanize this alligator,” Hart’s statement said.

Riley said the treatment of the alligator was outrageous.

“As a Town, we advocate for the protection of wildlife and the natural resources of the environment we live in,” he wrote. “It is unfortunate that people at the scene chose to make a spectacle of this situation and behave in a manner completely contrary to the core values and beliefs we, as Island residents, hold dear.”

SAINT MARY SEMINARY AND UNIVERSITY IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, MY ALMA MATER

The photo above is the chapel of St. Mary Seminary in Roland Park, Baltimore where I was in the seminary from 1976 to 1980. What a mess it was then. not so much today, though and thanks be to God for that!

My 1976 seminary class had about 60 candidates, one of the larger classes there since they went into meltdown mode around 1968. However, the liberal faculty there, who thought they were a parallel magisterium at the time, (clericalism on steroids, btw) had an agenda to make the Catholic Church into an ecumenical marshmallow. Gone were are popular devotions, like adoration, Benediction, public rosaries and the like.

Any seminarian who rocked the boat about these things, was immediately suspect, especially if that seminarian was opposed to women's ordination, optional celibacy and ecumenism that allowed for shared Eucharist. And if there was any hint of pre-Vatican II moral theology in the face of the new moral theology of that day, watch out. If you were labeled rigid, you would suffer and be marginalized. I remember the pro-homosexual agenda "catholic" group, Dignity, speaking to our seminarians and making fun of anyone who thought chastity was meant for everyone. If you complained about their presence there, you were considered homophobic, whatever that means, which back then meant you supported the Church's teaching on chastity.

And the Mass was as different as the many celebrants were, some more creative than others and some Masses downright invalid because of some of the stupidity in celebrating it.

I fear that every Mass I attended there in those 3 and 1/2 years was invalid as the bread used was homemade bread consisting of whole wheat, honey, leaven and some other palatable ingredients. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious and I often thought it would be great with coffee in the morning. Everyone referred to the so-called consecrated version of it as "chewy Jesus." Nice. NOT!

By 1980, our 60 + class dwindled down to 23. Very shortly after ordination, a few left the priesthood. Today, without those who have died or left the active ministry or the priesthood or forced to do so, there are about seven of us still in active ministry today I think.

When I was there, there was talk about doing a 1970's type renovation (wreckovation) of the chapel. But thanks be to God, it would have been too costly to do so and it never was attempted and still isn't being attempted.

In my day, the high altar under the corona was stripped and covered with an ugly heavy green thing that completely hid it. The tabernacle was moved to a side chapel (very nice though) to the left of the altar and the candles were removed.

In fact, around 1973 or 74, there was a "liturgy" of stripping that high altar of clothes, candles and tabernacle and placing these in a construction wheelbarrow and rolling them out the the chapel to the graveyard of pre-Vatican II accouterments. Of course the tabernacle made its way to the side chapel, but reservation of the Blessed Sacrament more commonly revered to as just "Eucharist" and especially adoration, not to mention, Benediction were relics of the pre-Vatican II Church and its corruptions and anti-ecumenical, making Catholics different than Protestants.

One priest-theologian on staff even made the snide and sacrilegious comment that adoration and Benediction were pagan by referring to it as "Canaanite Cookie Worship!" Yes, that was said and with typical academic clericalism and arrogance.

My only problem with the chapel today are the silly looking flimsy new altar and ambo. The ambo is still in the main aisle facing the altar of the seminary as it was in the 1970's.

Why in the NAME OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, would there be any objection to the Ordinary Form Mass's Liturgy of the Eucharist being celebrated ad orientem at the high altar and its spelndor? Why? Why? Why?  I know why and many of you do too.

Back to my class of 60. Yes some of them needed to be weeded out but most of them should not have been and would have made great priests in another era, but not the era St. Mary's of the 1970's was contriving.Most left on their own completely disgusted with what St. Mary's was promoting as Vatican II renewal. Some, I suspect, lost their faith over it.

EUTHANASIA IS LEGAL IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Personally, I think wild life should be respected although I am not opposed to hunting for food, not just for sport. This alligator was there long before any major development of Hilton Head took place. Perhaps he should have been moved to Savannah's wildlife refuge where alligators big and small, old and young, enjoy life without harassment. 

Those who are crying "crocodile" or should I say, "alligator" tears about this poor 100 year old beast should also be crying the same tears for babies euthanized by abortion and other people being euthanized for this, that and the other.

LISA WILSON AND KATHERINE KOKAL

A giant alligator estimated to be more than 12 feet long and weighing more than 1,000 pounds was trapped Tuesday evening at Legendary Golf on Hilton Head. 
 

The gator later was euthanized, reported Savannah television station WJCL.

Photos posted on Facebook show dozens of bystanders of all ages watching as the behemoth was bound and put on a tow truck to be moved.

“It was the biggest gator I’ve ever seen,” island resident Daisy Bobinchuck, who assisted in the capture of the gator, told The Island Packet.

Residents were angered by reports of bystanders “riding” the bound alligator before it was removed. Photos show at least two people sitting on the alligator’s back for photos.
Online comments said the capture effort turned into a “sideshow” off U.S. 278.

Bobinchuck said she was working on binding the animal’s back legs when a handful of people started to sit on the alligator for photos. She said the massive crowd that gathered near the golf course “was totally in the way.”

Dana Maffo of Critter Management told the television station that the 80- to 100-year-old alligator was not being aggressive but was looking for food.

“Our intention was to protect our customers, team members and community by capture and relocation...NOT by euthanasia! We are just heartbroken,” Legendary Golf owner Lorraine Berry posted on Facebook.

Bobinchuck said the team from Critter Management wanted to relocate the alligator, but the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources ordered the gator be euthanized.

“We wanted it to be a rescue, and we were coming up with a different plan for it not to be euthanized,” she said. “But DNR was very strict about that. We had to euthanize it.”

LET’S DISCUSS FALLEN AWAY CATHOLICS YET AGAIN

The diocese of Pittsburg is closing and merging numerous parishes. This is happening all over the northeast.

There are many reasons for the decline and possible fall of the Catholic Church in this country. To say that the changes in the Church immediately after Vatican II isn’t the foundation for this miserable state of affairs is to bury one’s head in the sand and focus on other factors that aren’t the foundation for this.

Vatican II’s liberalism is just that, flakey liberalism that firm Catholics it does not make. Liberals/heterodox are like reeds blowing in the wind seeking out every new fade or formula to make the Church more interesting, more dynamic, more relevant. Nothing is held onto tenaciously as conservative/orthodox Catholics hold on to certain aspects of tradition.

Traditionalists are stereotyped as rigid, meaning that won’t change or change ends up breaking their faith. To a certain extent this may be true of the “rigid” pre-Vatican II types right after the Council who had a difficult time changing and simply stopped going to Mass rather than being irritated each time they went to find one more novelty and one more sacrilege called renewal.

I do not see any bishops today taking seriously the root of the decline and fall of Catholicism in this country. Pope Benedict and his so-called minions knew what was the cause and the cure for what has happened in the last 50 to 60 years. The current crop of Benedict’s contemporaries who are “spirit of Vatican II” elderly trying to recapture what they thought were the helicon days of the late 60’s and 70’s, the era of their radical youth, are making the same mistakes today they made back then. They haven’t learned a damn thing at all about the Church or themselves.   

HOW LONG SHOULD PARISHES LIVE STREAM MASSES ONCE CHURCHES ARE OPENED?????

We plan to live stream for the foreseeable future  until the Obligation to attend Sunday Mass and Holy Days of Obligation is restored.

After today's daily Mass, I decided that we will no longer do the prayer for Spiritual Communion publicly. We'll ask those who watch to simply do it on their own.

Should live streaming parish Masses be the norm, no matter if we are opened or closed? Inquiring minds want other's opinion.

LITURGICAL ABUSES, HOW COMMON ARE THESE TODAY?

common abuse or not so common abuse?

Deacon Fritz Bauerschmidt, one of the few voices of reason at the Praytell blog, is a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He has this to say about odd liturgical abuses:

...I tried to discuss  a couple of years ago the undue attention given to certain bad-but-rare liturgical practices. If we were to judge simply by number of mentions, we might think that flying monstrances (or clown masses, or babies being baptized with squirt guns, etc.) were a common phenomenon, when in fact the attention they receive is precisely because of how rare and outside the mainstream they in fact are.

I think the good permanent deacon is correct. The greatest abuse and it may not be an intended abuse, are these things which I fear are rather common:

1. horrible musical selections chosen for Mass, some heretical, and executed in a less than sacred way, more profane than sacred

2. Liturgical sloppiness with little or no training for the plethora of "ministers" carrying out functions here and there

3. Sloppiness of dress for laity and in particular for those laity who act in a liturgical role such as lector and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.

4. Loss of reverence at Mass and for Mass especially in the manner in which Holy Communion is received

What say you? I think any critiques should be based on what the GIRM of the Ordinary Form requires and how faithful or unfaithful priests and parishes are to what is actually required for the celebration of the OF Mass. 

AUGUSTA PRESS WEIGHS IN ON REOPENING CHURCHES

Safety not an option for churches

Bless their hearts. No doubt faith leaders are eager to reopen their houses of worship whose doors have been closed by the coronavirus pandemic. Several areas across the country are reporting drops in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

But news of these reopenings provides an instructive primer on how to perform these reopenings safely - or unsafely.

In the “unsafely” file: In Washington state - where the nation’s first travel-related coronavirus case was detected - Covenant Christian Church in Spokane opened for spiritual business Sunday.

A newspaper reported that there “seemed to be a large crowd in attendance, all standing close to one another. No masks were evident.” Pastor Ken Peters preached that he felt a duty to fight a “satanic” agenda against a return to normal public worship.

We hope Peters is praying he achieves a different result from that of Bishop Gerald O. Glenn of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Richmond, Va. He held church services throughout March against health officials’ advice. Glenn said he would continue “unless I’m in jail or the hospital.”

Glenn died from COVID-19 on April 11.

It’s not just happening in the United States. On Saturday, Reuters reported that more than 40 people tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a service at Gospel Christian Baptist Church in Frankfurt, Germany.

Bear in mind, Germany is being held up to the rest of the world as a shining example of handling COVID-19. “How Germany contained the coronavirus” was the headline over a column published Saturday by the World Economic Forum.

Locally, most churches are erring on the side of caution by staying closed - definitely no fault in that. But we like what we see among churches that are resuming normal worship services after careful deliberation and by instituting wise precautions.

Augusta-area Catholic churches reopened for services Monday after restrictions were lifted by the Diocese of Savannah, which sent extensive guidelines for safety measures to all parishes. For example, worshippers will notice there are no hymnals - unsanitized objects held by multiple people could spread the bug.

Churches are still wisely instructing their most medically fragile and at-risk members to continue to stay home. If you consider yourself safer at home, stay.

Trumpet in Zion Fellowship is holding its annual revival at the Augusta Exchange Club Fairgrounds this week. Many folding chairs under the tent were marked off-limits, and some rows were cordoned off with caution tape, to encourage social distancing. Being in the open air is another bonus in avoiding the virus.

President Donald Trump showed Friday why he’s the favorite among evangelicals and conservative religious voters, by urging the rest of the nation’s governors to allow places of worship to reopen. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp lifted the restriction April 20.

“In America, we need more prayer, not less,” Trump said.

We agree - and would add that one of the best characteristics of prayer is that you can do it anywhere. That circles back to freedom of choice: Don’t go to church if you don’t feel medically safe.

As for defiant pastors elsewhere who insist on packing their pews, we’d encourage them to turn in their Bibles to Proverbs 27:12. One translation: “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”

Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff 

POKING THE CORONAVIRUS IN THE EYE IN GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA!

We went out to a restaurant in Richmond Hill for the first time since pandemic pandemonium broke out two and a half months ago. In addition the South Carolina and Georgia beaches are packed with Memorial Day ex-hostages liberated to go to the beach to remember our War Dead, secular All Souls Day.

Pictured Fr. Solomon Kaanan, Seminarian Kevin Braski and yours truly:

LIBERALISM OF THE ILK OF JESUITS, JAMES MARTIN TO NAME ONLY ONE, HAS TURNED THE CHURCH INTO A MARSHMALLOW THAT NOW WORSHIPS SECULAR LIBERALISM AND BOWS BEFORE IT AND KISSES THE FEET OF SEULAR RULERS

John Allen of Crux and formerly of the National Chismatic Reporter (NCR) is always fun to read. He has an especially good article that kind of dovetails with Fr. James Martin’s arrogant stupidity which some call clericalism. I pick a quote for you can read from the article. You can push the last words of this post for the complete article. I think it basically says it all. The recovery of the clericalism of the post-Vatican II, spirit of Vatican II dogmatism and authoritarianism, that marginalizes those who appreciate the ethos and thrust of the Catholic Church as a fortress or a unsinkable battleship, over the marshmallow it has become since Vatican II and becomes again under the hope-for recovery of the spirit of Vatican II of the 1970’s inspired by this Jesuit papacy:

In miniature, the situation in Palermo captures the broader tensions of the Francis papacy.

Ricotta, unsurprisingly, is a staunch traditionalist. Two days before his act of defiance over communion, he posted a video to Youtube, his title for which was: “An enflamed homily against heresy, apostasy and false ecumenism in the Church.” (While he delivered it, Ricotta wore the traditional priestly biretta.)

“Ecumenism has been one of the disasters of the past 60 post-conciliar years of catastrophe,” he said.

“For 2,000 years, the Church was an unsinkable battleship … we defeated the Roman Empire, Atilla the Hun, Hitler, Napoleon, the Soviet Union. Today, this battleship has become a paper tiger. All it took was a microorganism to sink it.”

Read the rest at Crux.

CLERICALISM ON STEROIDS BUT NOT IN THE WAY YOU THINK

Fr. James Martin, S.J. has made himself a caricature of the progressive left secular mentality and of academics and those on the highest pedestal, scientists and what they teach in an articulate, infallible way.

He doesn’t want churches and other houses of worship to open now. Why, because we have to listen to those who know better than us, especially academics who tout themselves as all knowing scientists. How do you spell C-L-E-R-I-C-A-L-I-S-M?  Not religious clericalism that defines itself by privilege and divine know-it-all-ism, but academic clericalism which does the same has speaks with such authority that only an imbecile would not take their advice.

In other words, you are stupid if you want the churches to open. You are only concerned about yourself and your wants, if you want churches to open. It is about making you look stupid compared to those who know if you dare suggest that scientists and priests like this go and jump into a lake.

Thank God that Fox’s Catholic reporter asks the common sense questions which Fr. Martin can’t answer. The one who looks stupid here is the good Jesuit.

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE RECTORY

Had a COVID-19 cookout at the rectory last night. From left to right, Seminarian Will Cook, our summer seminarian, Sem. Kevin Braski, Fr. Patrick May, Fr. Andrew Larkin, Deacon Nate Swann and the young priest in the red shirt is me. A little trivia, I offered Fr. Patrick May his First Holy Communion at Most Holy Trinity in Augusta where he also became an altar server. Deacon Nate Swan is my convert from St. Joseph in Macon. I knew both Fr. Drew and Sem. Kevin when they were in high school at Mt. de Sales in Macon and Sem Will, the ex Marine, was our seminarian last summer at St. Anne and currently is at St. Joseph in Macon living in my former rooms there. Fr. Larkin is now at our Cathedral/Basilica living in my former rooms there too.

EVIDENTLY THE BISHOP OF COVINGTON, KENTUCKY IS VERY LIBERATED

See all the photos by pressing title:

Ordination and First Mass of Fr Jordan Hainsey

GREGORY DIPIPPO

This past Saturday, Jordan Hainsey, a friend of NLM who has made many guest contributions over the last several years, was ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky, by H.E. Bishop Roger Foys. The following day, Fr Jordan celebrated his first Mass in the cathedral, with Bishop Foys attending in choir from his cathedra. We are very happy to share these pictures of the two ceremonies, and to offer our congratulation to Fr Jordan, to his family and friends, and to the entire diocese of Covington. Ad multos annos!

IS TODAY ASCENSION THURSDAY? WELL, IF YOU ASK ME.....

The bishops in their immense wisdom performed a miracle back in 2002 in this country. Some of them (not all) decided they had the power to make the Sunday after Ascension Thursday, Ascension Thursday. That's a miracle that Jesus never tried or performed, turning Sunday into Thursday although he did turn Sunday into the first day of the week.

The reason why the good bishops performed this miracle is that they thought more people might experience the Ascension if they declared the Sunday after it to be Ascension Thursday. That will work out really well this Sunday as most Catholic churches are closed. Oh well.

You can listen to my astute homily on it in St. Anne's live-streamed Mass this morning (Ascension Thursday) by going to the homily:

LIKE THE PANDEMIC EXACERBATING COMMON CHALICE, SHOULDN’T APPLAUSE AT LITURGIES CEASE ESPECIALLY WHEN BISHOPS APPLAUD EACH OTHER GIVEN THE PANDEMIC THEY HAVE CAUSED?

There is no humility when at ordinations of bishops, priests and deacons, there is self-congratulatory applause for each other at these liturgies. Let’s recover the sobriety of the Latin Rite Liturgy. Ban not only the pandemic producing common chalice but also applause at any kind at Mass.

HIEDI, GET OVER IT! YOU CAN HAVE ALL THE FRREDOM OF PRESS YOU WANT BUT YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO THE NAME CATHOLIC WHEN THE PAPER IS ANYTHING BUT CATHOLIC

The bishops have a right to call out so called “Catholic”publications and tell the laity which ones are not and should remove Catholic from their name, like I have done with The National Chismatic Reporter (NCR).

Remember the blogging priest in Virginia whose bishop told him to stop blogging? The bishop had a right to do so.

Read Heidi’s rant at the NCR:

Editorial independence in Catholic media is critical

BY HEIDI SCHLUMPF

MAY 21, 2020

IF A LAYMAN MAY NOT RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION AT MASS IS IT WORTH ATTENDING MASS? THE ANSWER IS A THREE LETTER WORD FOUND IN THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM: YES!

In my mine this is a meal:

Not this:

Because the heterodox promote the heretical notion that “the Eucharist” is a “resurrection meal” sans “the Holy Sacrifice” which the priest concludes by consuming the Holocaust, many laity see no point in attending Mass if they can’t “eat and drink” Holy Communion even if they broke the fast or are in a state of mortal sin.

If the laity can’t receive because of the hysteria of spreading COVI-19, why not offer Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament after the Post Communion Prayer in lieu of the Final Blessing? That has not been on the radar screen of any bishops, although Pope Francis did so at his live streamed Masses! I offer a “Benediction” at Communion time to my on line audience as is done when offering Holy Communion at the EF Mass.

I used these two photos On my parish Facebook page along with the essay that follows of Pope Francis modeling the way forward for liturgical renewal in the COVID-19 age which emphasizes the Holy Sacrifice not that Resurrection Meal:

Monday was the 100th birthday of Pope St. John Paul II. Pope Francis celebrated Mass "ad orientem" at the altar where the saint is entombed. Ad Orientem was the norm for the Mass until about 1966 when the reform of the Mass allowed the priest to face the congregation. Ad Orientem means "towards the East". In Catholic parlance it could mean the geographical east or facing the altar and crucifix as Pope Francis did on Monday. Symbolically it means facing Jerusalem and Golgotha where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. Symbolically it means facing the direction of the rising sun. It is also a symbol of facing the east from whence Jesus will return at the Second Coming and Final Judgement. It also configures the priest and the laity facing the same direction toward the Lord. It also makes clear that the Mass is an "unbloody" reenactment of the One Sacrifice of Christ on Good Friday, not a reenactment of Holy Thursday's Last Supper. At Mass we are at the Glorified Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, not at the Last Supper. Jesus established the Mass at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday not to remember it, but to remember Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Pope Benedict requested priests to place a crucifix on the altar facing the priest when the priest celebrates Mass facing the congregation and not to gesture to the congregation at the words "take this all of you..." as though the Eucharistic Prayer is a reenactment of the Last Supper and the congregation represents the 12 apostles. That isn't what the Mass is. In the Martha and Mary Chapel, we have recovered the Church's oldest liturgical tradition of the priest facing the liturgical east and joining the congregation in facing the same direction in liturgical prayer.

BOMBSHELL! POPE FRANCIS MODELS THE WAY FORWARD FOR COVID-19 AUTHENTIC POST VATICAN II TENEWAL OF THE MASS AND IT BEGINS WITH AD ORIENTEM!!!!

FRANCIS' BOMBSHELL WHICH WILL MAKE CONSERVATIVES AND PROGRESSIVES CRAZY, ST. FAUSTINA'S FEAST IS ADDED TO THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR ON OCTOBER 5

A 100th birthday gift to St JPII from the reigning Pope, Vatican releases CDW Decree making Oct 5 memorial of St Faustina Kowalska – the Krakow-based apostle of Divine Mercy championed by Papa Wojtyla – a global observance on the Roman Calendar:

IS GOD BRING GOOD OUT OF THE COVID-19 PANEDMIC BY BRINGING ABOUT LITURIGICAL RENEWAL AND RESTORATION?

The Bishop of St. Louis is seen wearing liturgical gloves and perhaps buskins so as not to contaminate the floor of the sacred cathedral where he presides. Liturgical masks are a liturgical novelty but an organic development of their use will add a religious symbolism to it. I wonder what that might be?

God is bringing about authentic liturgical renewal and restoration with some novelties such as masks. I predict the maniple will make a comeback as a kind of handkerchief. O, wait, it has made a comeback with the EF Mass (and truth be told, I have worn it on occasion at OF Masses).

So, in a span of two months, this is what the COVID-19 pandemic has done for liturgical renewal:

1. Offertory procession has been eliminated (Vatican II asked for noble simplicity).

2. The Handshake, Hug, Kissing, of Peace has been eliminated (Vatican II asked for noble simplicity and sobriety in the Mass).

3. The Pandemic causing common chalice has been eliminated for obvious reasons Vatican II taught noble simplicity was important at the Communion Rite and the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Risen, Gorifiied Lord is fully present (intact) under the form of the Host alone

4. No holding hands at the Lord's Prayer as the Mass, as Vatican II taught, is not a contact sport.

Things the Lord has planned for further Liturgical Renewal:

1. The elimination of the Universal Prayer (one post-Vatican II Cardinal says Vatican II called these, "those boring things).

2. The Roman Canon mandated for all Masses because it include the Universal Prayer within it, as Vatican II taught.

3. Kneeling for Holy Communion and at the altar railing because Vatican II taught that it is easier and faster to distribute Holy Communion this way, noble simplicity demands few Euharistiic Ministers, and finger-to tongue contact is absent due to the posture of the communicant.

4. Ad orientem is restored because Vatican II taught that prayer is directed to God, the Mass is a Sacrifice not a reenactment of the Last Supper and there is nothing to see that can't be seen at the high elevations and people can know where the priest is by the sound of ringing bells.

5. The Eucharistic Fast (beginning at midnight) will be restored because Vatican II taught that this fast was the best way to prevent everyone in the congregation from receiving Holy Communioin as well as an emphasis on not receiving Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin.

6. The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar will be restored because Vatican II taught that the virus of sin as bad as the coronavirus needs the vaccine of lengthy pentitential prayers prior to the actual celebration of the Mass.

7. Vatican II taught that the Mass should not be too wordy as aerosolized speech not only is boring but spreads pandemics. The Mass should be in Latin, quietly prayed, becasue as Vatican II taught, God understands Latin since prayer is directed to Him and not the congregation and He can hear what mere mortal man cannot. He sees too, what men can't see.  

IS NOW THE TIME TO OVERCOME ITEMISAPHOBIA

New Protocol for Mass Attendance

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM SAINT ANNE CATHOLIC CHURCH FOR THE RESUMPTION OF PUBLIC SUNDAY MASSES ON THE WEEKEND OF MAY 30/31, PENTECOST SUNDAY

The Obligation to attend Mass is lifted due to the ongoing pandemic. Therefore , if you are sick in any way, have a hacking cough, are sneezing, or have a fever PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND MASS FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS who are fearful or vulnerable.  If you have underlying health issues or are age 65, and older with health risks, please do not attend Mass. If you are fearful in anyway about being in a public room like the church building, where we can’t guarantee your safety as it concerns your health, please do not attend Mass. 

We are recommending that you wear a mask to help dissipate any risks to others, and alleviate the fears that others have (founded or unfounded).  It is an act of charity on your part as you sit in the pew with someone who may be anxious. 

These are our precautions:

1.  Every other pew is roped off, and thus closed.

2.  Family members can sit together, but others should space six feet apart in the open pews.  We are not going to be Gestapos in enforcing this, thus be respectful of others, and if anyone gets uncomfortable politely motion they should move down.  If you need to leave the church/Mass, please feel free to do so, if others are not compliant.

3.  We will wipe the tops of the pews with a gentle disinfectant after each Sunday Mass, and use a disinfectant aerosol spray for the air.  If you wish to wear plastic gloves, do so, but you can’t receive Holy Communion in the hand with gloves.

4.  Bring your own hand sanitizer as we can’t guarantee that we will have sufficient due to shortages, but we will have dispensers at the entrances of the church.

5.  At Communion time, observe physical distancing in line. The floor has blue tape. You may receive in the hand or on the tongue. Please receive in the hand PROPERLY!!!! Dominant hand under the other hand, and keep hands flat, and still so the Host may be placed on your flattened palm without skin touching skin. If you receive on the tongue, tilt your head slightly back, and extend your tongue slightly, and do not move your head.  If the minister touches any part of the hand or tongue, he will dip his fingers in rubbing alcohol next to him, and dry them.  We will limit the use of Eucharistic Ministers, and both priests will be present to help in the distribution (one priest popping in to do so).

6.  We will have only one lector for each Mass.

7.  Ushers, and Greeters will practice good physical distancing, and verbally assist those who need it.

8.  Receptacles for your Sacrificial offering will be at the entrances to the nave of the church.  You may place it in these receptacles either before or after Mass.  The basket will not be passed at collection time.  You can give easily on line by going to our secure Our Sunday Visitor on-line giving and setting up a personal account. 

9.  When entering, and departing the church please space yourselves six feet apart unless in family groupings.  Please converse outside with physical distancing, not in the nave of the church.  In other words,  NO talking or visiting in the main part of the church OR NARTHEX before or after Mass—let’s return to the pre-Vatican II practice of sacred silence in the presence of the tabernacle so others might pray.   VISIT OUTSIDE THE NAVE!!!!!

10.  IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH ANY OF THE PROTOCOLS WE HAVE SET TO REDUCE THE RISK OF CONTAGION, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND MASS.  YOU ARE DISPENSED.  We will continue to live-stream our daily Mass and the 10:30 AM Sunday Mass, and you can still make a “an Act of Spiritual Communion” from home. 

I am confident we can have proper physical distancing at the 5 PM, and 8 AM Masses, less so about the 10:30 AM Mass.  However, for Pentecost Sunday, and the following Sunday, we are adding a 12:30 PM Mass for First Communion children and their families.  This Mass is just for them, but will pull some away from the 10:30 Mass.  We are also dividing the Confirmation Class into two groups and celebrating a 12:30 PM Mass for them on Sunday June 28, and again July 12. 

Father Allan J. McDonald
Pastor

ALL ARE WELCOME UNTIL THEY AREN’T!

This is the ultra liberal/heterodox mirror image of the SSPX and other more Catholic than the pope and bishops in Union with him schismatic sects. They too, while glorying in their prideful ultra orthodoxy are at their core quite heterodox as their ultra progressive schismatic counterparts.

In the photo, though, look at the demographics of the congregation and compare that to an SSPX congregation. That’s quite telling, no?

Press the title for full article. Excerpts as a tease below title:

In the foothills of Oregon's Cascades, a laid-back Catholic schism

May 16, 2020

by Peter Feuerherd

20191110_0958191 CROP.jpg

Mass at Holy Communion Evangelical Catholic Church in Bend, Oregon, in November 2019 (NCR photo/Peter Feuerherd)

One difference is a projector, illustrating the lyrics of the hymns, which feature praise music with a repetitive beat, a feature usually part of evangelical Protestant megachurches. The congregational participation in singing is stronger than in most American Catholic churches.

Another difference is the prayer mentioning the local bishop. While Pope Francis is prayed for, an Evangelical Catholic bishop takes Cary's place in the Mass prayers.

"We pray for Pope Francis at every Mass," said Radloff. "We love Pope Francis."....

The praise music gives the Sunday liturgy a somewhat evangelical feel. Yet the congregants emphasize that they see themselves as Catholics, albeit frequently with a story featuring alienation from mainstream Catholicism, frequently over marriage and sexuality issues.

Cathy Hendricks, parish administrator, spent 28 years in a Methodist congregation, before returning to what she described as her Catholic roots at Holy Communion. As a child of a divorced mother, she said she didn't feel comfortable growing up in her Catholic parish. She credits Holy Communion for being welcoming.....

.... But not all is so welcoming, or lay-led, at Holy Communion, said former associate pastor Mark Hebert. Formerly a priest of the Phoenix Diocese, Hebert, now married, moved to Bend and began working at Holy Communion. Most of Holy Communion is based on the personality of Radloff, he said.

"A lot of his leadership is about manipulation," Hebert said, noting that Holy Communion has undergone massive shifts in its pastoral council in its short history. Radloff, he said, dominates the decision-making process and will lash out at anyone who disagrees. "Father Jim calls most of the shots."

Radloff, he said, presents an image of "a young, hip priest who is very friendly, and on the surface, he is a warm and caring guy. Behind the scenes with lay leaders it is another story."

POPE BENEDICT STRIKES AGAIN; IS IT A GENTLE NUDGE TO THE CURRENT REIGNING POPE IN ANY WAY?

This is from CRUX and the Pope Speaks again:

Benedict XVI praises legacy of John Paul II, calling him ‘restorer of the Church’

• Paulina Guzik
  May 15, 2020
  SPECIAL TO CRUX

St. John Paul II greets throngs of Poles waiting for a glimpse of their native son at the monastery of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa during his 1979 trip to Poland. (Credit: Chris Niedenthal/CNS.) 

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI commemorated the centennial of the birth of Karol Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II, in an open letter to the Polish people addressed to Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, who was the longtime private secretary to the Polish pontiff.

A mix of emotional memoir and theological thoughts on the heritage of John Paul - who was born on May 18, 1920, and died April 2, 2005 - the letter is a call not to divide the Church within a line of pontificates, but see each pope as a continuity of his predecessor.

Benedict says John Paul marked a turning point in the history of the Church. After commenting on the turbulences that troubled both the world and the Church at the time of John Paul’s election, the pope emeritus says that “an almost impossible task was awaiting the new pope. Yet, from the first moment on, John Paul II aroused new enthusiasm for Christ and his Church.”

John Paul’s proclamation of “Do not be afraid” characterized his entire pontificate and - Benedict continues - “made him a liberating restorer of the Church.”

Before succeeding John Paul, the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was one of his closest collaborators for 27 years as the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office. In his letter, Benedict compared his predecessor and successor, stressing “the inner unity of the message of John Paul II and the basic intentions of Pope Francis can also be found: John Paul II is not the moral rigorist as some have partially portrayed him.” It is the opposite, Benedict writes: “With the centrality of divine mercy, he gives us the opportunity to accept moral requirement for man, even if we can never fully meet it.”

Polish theologian and John Paul II expert Dominican Father Jarosław Kupczak told Crux the letter “is like a sip of spring water,” adding it is a gift not only to the Polish nation, but to the world.

“We see today various attempts to divide the modern papacies along different lines that serve the current interests of different factions. There is no theological break between John Paul II and Benedict XVI, neither is it between John Paul II and Francis,” Kupczak said, “because the teaching of the Church should be read in accordance with the hermeneutic of continuity, not rupture.”

The 93-year old pope emeritus explained the love of Divine Mercy by John Paul II with a personal story on how respectful he was with his collaborators.

 John Paul was deeply touched by the message of Faustina Kowalska, a nun from Kraków, who emphasized Divine Mercy as an essential center of the Christian faith. Because of that, he wanted to establish a feast day for Divine Mercy. The pope consulted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on whether it could be the second Sunday of Easter.

The Congregation, led by Ratzinger, answered twice with a negative response, explaining that Sunday is “in Albis” and set aside for the Easter Octave, according to an ancient tradition. John Paul accepted the “no” and changed his proposal so that it respected the historical meaning, but also included the Divine Mercy.

“I was impressed by the humility of this great pope, who abandoned ideas he cherished because he could not find the approval of the official organs that must be asked according established norms,” Benedict writes.

In another part of the letter, Benedict remembers when John Paul passed way: “I cannot forget the moment when Archbishop Sandri announced the message of the pope’s departure. Above all, the moment when the great bell of St. Peter’s took up this message remains unforgettable.”

Benedict also wrote about the discussions about calling John Paul “the Great” after his death and pointing out that only two popes were given that honor, Leo I in the fifth century and Gregory in the sixth century: He said John Paul was in that league.

“The similarity is unmistakable,” he writes. John Paul courageously confronted a strong civil power the same way as the other two popes, and nevertheless he won over the tyranny.

“The power of faith turned out to be a force that finally unhinged the Soviet power system in 1989 and made a new beginning possible. Undisputedly, the pope’s faith was an essential element in the collapse of the powers. And so, the greatness that appeared in Leo I and Gregory I is certainly also visible here.”

Pope Francis is scheduled to celebrate his 7 a.m. morning Mass on May 18 at the tomb of John Paul II. It will be livestreamed by Vatican media.

At 8 p.m. the same evening, Francis’s remarks for the centenary of John Paul’s birth will be livestreamed by the Archdiocese of Krakow and be aired on Polish television.

PRAYWHINE STRIKES AGAIN! IS DAVID HAAS PROMOTING HERESY AS WELL AS HYSTERIA?

You can read the complete heretical/hysterical whine HERE:

“I Dissent”: David Haas on Re-Opening Church

Here is but one quote from it with my astute comments below it:

Pope Francis has called us to be ministers and servants in the “field hospitals” of the suffering and poor. In our frantic ache to gather back into the church buildings to celebrate the liturgy, to be in the presence of Christ in the sharing at the table of the “liturgical” proclamation of the Word and the resurrection meal of the Eucharist … should we not first and foremost during these times, be more anxious to be in and serve at (in creative ways) the table of the WORLD? Fr. Kenan Osborne once said: “We must find the Lord not only in the table of the Eucharist, but in the table of the world around us. If we do not see Jesus in the table of the world, we really will not find Jesus in the table of the Eucharist.”

My comments: For the most part, Pope Francis' field hospital during the pandemic has gone AWOL or missing in action.

Because of the reformed post-Vatican II Mass which moved the "Liturgy of the Word" from the table of the altar where the "sacrifice" of God's Word made Flesh takes place, to a podium or ambo, isn't it nonsensical to call the podium the "table of the 'Liturgical' proclamation of the Word?"  And traditionally, isn't there a sacrificial aspect of proclaiming Jesus, who is God's Word Incarnate, to God in a sacrificial way???????

And then Hass uses the diluted term for the consuming the Holocaust, "the resurrection meal of the Eucharist." Wouldn't the Sacrificial Banquet of the Rite of Holy Communion be better and emphasize the importance of the Paschal Sacrifice which encompasses the passion, death, resurrection, ascension and outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

And is it true that sinners who do not see Jesus' in the world, really will not find Jesus in the "table of the Eucharist?" Isn't that heretical? Isn't He there whether they find Him or not? 

And what about the poor souls who cannot "come to the table of the resurrection meal of the Eucharist" are they out in the cold if they "only" participate in the Canon of the Mass which at its heart is the Sacrifice in a glorified way????? Is that useless to Haas or non existent. Is his idea of the Mass just a "resurrection Meal????"

What the pandemic has done and Haas has articulated is how superficial, air headed and nonsensical, touchy-feely the post-Vatican II ideologies about the Mass are which spring from the progressive/heretical/heterodox in the Church or her fringes.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY FOR SOME WHO COMMENT HERE:

PUTTING MY PARISHIONER’S SOULS INTO THE HANDS OF GOD

SHOULD I PLACE SIGNS ON THE DOORS, “ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!”? What do you think and fear?

IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT!

Dear parishioners,

Glory Hallelujah! Daily Mass will resume in the Main Church beginning Monday, May 25th (Memorial Day) at 9 AM. Sunday Masses will resume the following weekend, May 30/31, the Solemnity of Pentecost. We will be using the main church only  because of its size and ability for physical distancing for the foreseeable future. Our Mass schedule on the weekend is the same: 5 PM Saturday, with Confessions from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM and on Sunday at 8:00 AM and 10:30 AM.

Every other pew is roped off to allow for physical distancing. Family groups may sit together in the pew, but others must space six feet apart. I don’t think we will have any problems with the 5:00 PM and 8:00 AM Masses. I am more concerned about the 10:30 AM Mass and having proper distancing. We ask that you consider wearing a mask, especially for the sake of those who are fearful.

The Obligation to attend Mass is still suspended. If you are afraid to return or if you are not feeling well, please do not attend Mass. We will continue to live-stream the daily and 10:30 Masses until all is back to normal.

Confessions will be heard in the main church in the side chapels on Saturday, May 16th. As well, Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament will return, Wednesday May 20th and Thursday, May 21st but in the main church following the 9 AM Mass. On Wednesday adoration concludes with Confessions at 6:15 PM and the Miraculous Medal Novena at 6:45 concluding with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. On Thursday, Adoration ends with the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3:45 PM.

Fr. Allan

ACTUAL PARTICIPATION AT MASS DURING THE PANDEMIC BY ACTUALLY BEING PRESENT

A creative priest celebrates a Drive-In EF Mass during the Pandemic allowing the Faithful to be actually present and to share in the Church’s patrimony of “actual participation” during Mass.

In the EF Mass, it is only required that the priest complete the Sacrifice by consuming the Holocaust for the validity of the Mass. The Laity may share in the Sacrificial Banquet if they are in a state of grace, but they are not required to do so. Thus if Hosts run out, no problem or if there is a pandemic and Hosts can’t be distributed because of spreading a pandemic, no problem.

It is not necessary either for lay lectors or Communion Ministers. The priest can take these roles and, you know what, no problem.

There is no need to speak or sing and thus aerosolize the air with pandemic viruses. And most of the EF Mass is in low voice, so no problem if most of the Mass can’t be heard.

There is no presentation of the offerings, so no problem with contaminating the sacred vessels with COVID-19. And of course the priest faces the same direction as the congregation for 99% of the Mass, so no problem with his aerosolized speech spreading COVID-19 to those around him.

And of course there is no sign of peace shared in any physical way whatsoever by the congregation. This is the healthiest Mass possible compared to a typical OF Mass.

The EF Mass is perfect for actual participation by actually being present, even if in one’s car during a virus Pandemic spread by aerosolized speech, singing and touching.

I had the very same missal shown in these photos beginning in the late 1950’s! It helped with actual participation: