RETIRED FLEXIBLITY…

 Celebrated Mass Saturday evening for Deacon Don and Mrs. Pat McArdle’s family reunion at their daughter and son-in-law’s beach home on Hilton Head Island. While the adults are not in the photo but behind their children, there were about 32 in the house for the Mass. Deacon Don was the deacon at my ordination Mass in 1980 and one of the deacons at Most Holy Trinity in Augusta when I became pastor there in 1991. They have 9 children, all of whom were young children in 1991 and they took up the whole pew. Now all the children are married with children and there are also 3 great grand children. I think there are 32 grandchildren. To my right is a panoramic picture window with the Atlantic lapping at the backyard.

HARD AT WORK THIS SATURDAY MORNING IN MY OFFICE AS I EAT BREAKFAST IN MY DINING ROOM THINKING ABOUT THE PAST IN MY OFFICE DRINKING COFFEE IN MY DINING ROOM!

 

My dining room/office with a magnificent portrait of me celebrating Mass at St. Joseph Church in Macon given to me as a gift when I departed there in 2016. The curio and dining table/desk belonged to my mom (as most of the stuff I have). The nic nacs were hers too except for the white fat cat given me when I actually had a fat white cat!

IN THE THEORETICAL REALM, LET’S PRETEND THAT THE EMERITUS POPE DECIDED TO PUT AN END TO ALL OF THIS; WHAT WOULD HE DO AND WHAT WOULD IT DO TO THE CHURCH?

 Of course, we do have the God of surprises who seems to have kept the emeritus pope around for all of the current papacy making abundantly clear the two forms of the one papacy and the disconnect between the two…

LET’S CALL IT FOR WHAT IT IS; HORRIBLY STUPID AND AN EXAMPLE OF HOW PROGRESSIVES PUSH TRADITIONAL CATHOLICS BACK TO SANE PRE-VATICAN II LITURGICAL ARCHITECTURE AND LITURGY

 

I post these pictures from an article in Praytell extolling this post-Vatican II renovation of the Jesuit Church in Rome, Jesu. To his credit, the author does point out the negatives but not in a consistent, logical way. 

At the outset, I must say this isn’t a wreckovation as the church wasn’t gutted and the older sanctuary remains intact. All of this could easily be swept away and overnight, if sanity ever overtakes the insanity of the Jesuits. 

The first thing I noticed which the author of the article neglects altogether is the new tabernacle placed directly in front of the old altar with its tabernacle already embedded in it. It’s not ugly, but why in the Name of God and all that is Holy do we need not only an altar in front of the existing altar and now a tabernacle in front of the existing tabernacle. What the h?????

In a modern church, the new altar, ambo and chair along with the risers would be fine in my book of eclectic tastes in liturgical architecture. But not in this Romanesque church. And even in a modern church, the cube altar is just silly looking and quite too small. Even if the same design is maintained, elongating it into a rectangle would solve the silliness of its current look. 

And yes, the corona over the altar is very traditional, but not a new corona added to a new altar placed in front of an original altar with its spectacular painting above it and the new corona a modern version of it completely out of place in a Romanesque church. The new corona, as you will note below, blocks the view of the artwork above the old altar. It is quite stupid to place it over the cube to anger the eye that wants to see the art work above the altar. 

Who, but silly liturgists, like this kind of dissonance in a traditional Romanesque church? What is wrong with the pre-Vatican II sanctuary arrangement for the modern missal? What is wrong with the Liturgy of the Eucharist ad orientem? There was no need to make clear the rupture of Vatican II with what preceded except to make that abundantly clear. 

The author of the article, true to the recovery of the 1970’s in the Church of the Now, laments that more of a wreckovation did not take place, the type of wreckovations of the 1970’s and well into the 90’s. 

If you want to make more young Catholics move to the older liturgy and seek FSSP and FSPX parishes, this is the way to do it!

IT’S TIME FOR TRADITIONALISTS, YOUNG, OLD AND IN-BETWEEN TO STOP WHINING ABOUT THE 1962 ROMAN MISSAL AND START CELEBRATING THE MODERN MISSAL IN A TRADITIONAL WAY!

 We need to recover the sentiments of this famous coffee mug which the famous person who created it sent to me and I just drunk my morning coffee from, twice:

WAS SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM A MISTAKE? YES!

 

On July 7, 2007 Pope Benedict issued his infamous Summorum Pontificum. There was great jubilation among long suffering traditionalists and soon hoards of young Catholics and their young clergy embraced this new freedom with gusto. 

Aging progressives, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Vatican II, were aghast and called it the worst name possible, “so pre-Vatican II.” When a progressive calls you that be sure to know that its ethos is a sanitized “n” word or whatever word of profanity you might want to choose.

In hindsight and with a pope now thoroughly imbued and in love with the 1970’s Church which had its wings clipped by both Popes John Paul II and Benedict, should Pope Benedict been more forceful in establishing his theology of interpreting Vatican II in continuity with what preceded and called the spirit of Vatican II in rupture with what preceded the heresy it is? We see how His Holiness Pope Francis  has been able to reverse and annihilate the direction these two popes (one still living,  mind you) were leading the Church not by denying Vatican II but interpreting it respectful to what preceded and in continuity with what came before. 

But Pope Benedict only proposed; he did not impose. He did not imposed his vision in a pre-Vatican II way as Pope Francis is imposing his post-Vatican II spirit of rupture ideology upon the Church but with a veneer of “walking together” in a democratic spirit of synodality which is quite self-referential. 

The mistake that Pope Benedict made with SP is that he freed up the pre-Vatican II Mass to be liberally celebrated thus creating two forms of the one Latin Rite which Pope Francis calls deleterious. 

Pope Benedict should have reformed the 1970 Roman Missal and made it more like the 1962 Roman Missal along with the liturgies of the other sacraments, like Baptism. He should have done exactly what Vatican II asked, no more, no less—interpreted noble simplicity, not as ugly austerity but beautiful clarity as well as some vernacular for the changing parts of the Mass and an expanded lectionary, not replacing the 1962 lectionary but simply adding two more cycles based upon the first but the first not be replaced but becoming year A. 

If Pope Benedict had simply replaced the 1970 Roman Missal with a truly reformed in continuity new Roman Missal and definitively suppressed the 1970 Roman Missal, would Pope Francis do to that kind of reformed Missal what he has done to Summorum Pontificum? 

I ask; you answer.

SOUTHERN COMFORT AND CULTURE…

 This isn’t it, but before I left Richmond Hill, something exactly like this made a left turn on Ford Avenue in front of me onto 144 Spur. But he was driving a Chevy truck not a Ford. Never saw this before. He gave me a chance to pick which vehicle I could broadside, the truck, the trailer or the boat!

HOW TO MAKE A DELICIOUS PASTA WHICH WOULD BE ANATHEMA TO MOST ITALIANS BUT NOT THIS ONE…

For supper tonight (Tuesday, I think) I made my mother’s meat sauce but instead of using ground beef, I used lean ground turkey, which would be anathema to most native Italians. I also put two sweet and one hot turkey sausage into it, another anathema move on my part and the final two anathemas are that I used whole wheat linguini and American Parmesan. But it was delicious and I don’t think many would know that it was turkey in the sauce….except someone who is a turkey, but I digress…

WATCH MY FACEBOOK VIDEO OF THIS SEMI-ITALIAN PASTA HERE!

MY NEW NORMAL, AT LEAST FOR A WHILE….

 I’m trying to work out my routine living on Hilton Head rather than just spending my day off or vacation here. Soon, I am sure, once word gets out, I will be called on to help with daily and Sunday Masses in the vicinity. Thus far, though, I need to say Mass in my makeshift chapel in the second bedroom so I can say Mass daily. So this is what I have done this morning: I got up at 5 AM (late for me, normally in the parish at 4 AM). Got to Planet Fitness after a light breakfast at 6 AM, left at 7:30 AM went to Publix to grocery to shop (btw, I say the Rosary as I use the elliptical machine). God back to the condo, prayed morning prayer on the balcony. Came in, got vested for Mass and celebrated Mass. All this by 10:45 AM. Now I am making a light lunch to take to the beach for mid day prayer and a ”riposo”after lunch, as we Italians live life. Who knows what I will do tonight. I do have to cook you know!

CONVERSION TO THE LOVE OF LIFE AND ALL CREATION

 One more senseless act of gun violence or any kind of violence that leads to the deaths of innocent men, women and children. What to do?

In most of these cases of mass murder, the murderer is compromised in one way or the other. He is psychopath, a sociopath or under the influence of drugs or Satan himself. He is open and easily manipulated to all that our culture of death promotes, especially the media with its pro-choice ideology, the choice between killing or letting live another life, innocent or guilty.

Commentators on all of this point to the ready ability of a person to buy a weapon of war to kill people. But they fail to identify the 24 hour news media and the mania about non stop reporting of these kinds of crimes that play into the hands of the compromised seeking world wide attention.

And there is no talk about limiting the first amendment right to free speech and expression when it comes to the violence of the movie industry, video games and the pro-choice agenda of half the country. All of these need to be limited too and laws in place to guide the movie industry through censorship as it was done prior to the 1960’s. It worked very well then and was even applied to make sure offensive situations on television would be curtailed. If resurrected it could be applied to all social media platforms and could lead to the elimination of pornography and graphic sex and violence.

These mass murderers are compromised and from a moral point of view their sin is “venial” if it was committed without full consent of the will, the rational will. 

But what about all those who procure abortions and all who assist in this genocide. Are they compromised? No, doctors want to make a buck and mask their murderous results by calling it doctor/patient relationships. Never mind that one of the patients is always killed in the abortion. 

And then you have Catholic politicians no longer saying they are personally opposed to abortion, but they are pro-choice by not shoving their Faith onto others. No they advocate for abortion on demand and to the final moments of a full term pregnancy. It is repugnant to say the least. And if it is politically helpful to them, they would promote killing an infant after birth and would be open to negotiating how many days, months or years this could take place.

These are sane people and do this with full consent of the will and then gladly receive Holy Communion declaring they are good and faithful Catholics accompanied by a grateful hierarchy who doesn’t want to get political with them. How mortally sinful is this mentality?

Yes, I accept the Church’s teaching about the sanctity of human life and I will not condemn, though, those politicians and jurists who believe that justice demands the death penalty for those who are guilty of heinous crimes against humanity. 

I also believe we must respect creation and love all creation. But the apex of God’s creation, supported by creation itself is human life and its dignity is the highest dignity. We can use creation for our benefit, for food, clothing and shelter, but we can’t use humans in a like fashion. There is a difference. 

INDEPENDENCE DAY, AKA, THE FOURTH OF JULY, AT THE BEACH

 

BOMBSHELL! VATICAN SECRETARY OF STATE WEARS HIS GRANDMOTHER’S LACE IN THE CONGO!

 

MY 4TH OF JULY EVE (INDEPENDENCE EVE) DINNER…

 My Independence Eve dinner, shrimp scampi. Shrimp Scampi in Italian is redundant as scampi alone signifies that it is a shrimp of some kind. Gamberetti is the Italian word for this kind of shrimp. I bought the shrimp with head on down the street from a truck farmer. Jumbo, fresh Georgia-Carolina shrimp with the head on for only $10 a pound. I bought two pounds. Cooking the shrimp with the head on gives the shrimp a wonderful flavor.

WHY CAN'T WE EMBRACE A FULLER EXPRESSION OF LITURGICAL DIVERSITY? ARE WE RIGID DOCTORS OF THE LAW OR A FLEXIBLE SLINKY?

I know it isn't polite to correct the Holy Father, but there is quite a bit of liturgical diversity in the Catholic Church which His Holiness is the visible head. Ecclesial unity is not based upon a single rite and a single rite, as we can see below, can be quite diverse so as not to appear to be even the rite that is being celebrated. 

That all these rites are permitted within the context of ecclesiology and ecclesial unity under the papacy makes one scratch one's head as to why the pre-Vatican II rite of the Church cannot be included in this diversity of unity. 

Maybe the Holy Father would consider making the 1962 Roman Missal more in line with what Vatican II asked? Allow the Liturgy of the Word to have a official vernacular lectionary and that the Liturgy of the Word be celebrated as in the Reformed Mass. What's the problem with that?

Allow Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion by way of deacons and officially installed acolytes and as it concerns acolytes allow females. What's the problem with this?

Thus the Roman Missal of 1962 remains as is except for the manner of the Liturgy of the Word and who distributes Holy Communion.

Oh, and yes, allow for some vernacular, only for the changing parts of the Mass. What's the problem with that? 

Here is a very diverse Congolese Rite Mass with Pope Francis for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time at Saint Peter's:

 

List of churches sui iuris:

Name	Est.
	Coptic Catholic Church	1741
	Eritrean Catholic Church[3]	2015
	Ethiopian Catholic Church	1846
	Armenian Catholic Church	1742
	Albanian Greek Catholic Church	1628
	Belarusian Greek Catholic Church	1596
	Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church	1861
	Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia	1611
	Greek Byzantine Catholic Church	1911
	Hungarian Greek Catholic Church	1912
	Italo-Albanian Catholic Church	1784
	Macedonian Greek Catholic Church	2001
	Melkite Greek Catholic Church	1726
	Romanian Greek Catholic Church	1697
	Russian Greek Catholic Church	1905
	Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church	1646
	Slovak Greek Catholic Church	1646
	Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church	1595
	Chaldean Catholic Church	1552
	Syro-Malabar Catholic Church	50s AD
	Maronite Church	4th c.
	Syriac Catholic Church	1781
	Syro-Malankara Catholic Church	1930
	Latin Church	1st c.
	Other	Ordinariates

 

 

WHAT WILL BE THE MARCHING ORDERS FOR THE NEXT POPE GIVEN TO HIM FROM THE CONCLAVE?

 

In a recent interview, Pope Francis stated that he had no original ideas for his papacy but rather he has carried out what the conclave and pre-conclave meetings asked the new pope to do. That’s interesting. 

What marching orders will the upcoming conclave and pre-conclave meetings give to the new pope of the near future?

1. Clarify Church teaching and clean up the confusion sown since 2013. In other words reassert the coherency of Catholic teaching

2. Strengthen Catholic identity and stop screwing around the with the orthodox faith of Catholics especially young Catholics. 

3. Bring inner healing to the Church after reigniting the war of the post-Vatican II Church with the Pre-Vatican II Church. Has that been and is it a just war or an unjust war?

4. Stop courting favor with secular politics and seeking the praise of the world, the devil and the flesh.

5. Stop insulting Catholics, be they clergy, religious or laity and stop using pop psychology to manipulate an outcome.

Anything else that might be the marching orders for the next pope?

THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE: JULY 1, 2022 MAKES IT OFFICIAL! I AM RETIRED! OH MY!

 

At the end of my last Mass at St. Anne Church, Richmond Hill, Georgia, Sunday, June 26, Bishop Stephen Parkes surprised me at the end of the Mass by showing up to say a few words. I did not expect our bishop to be there and I did not see him enter the church. It was after Holy Communion and I had sat down for some silence when he approached me from my right side, from the side of the ambo, and actually startled me. 

Here are the words he said with my concluding remarks:

And this is my final weekend homily. This was given at our 5 PM Vigil Mass, June 25th. For some reason, I can't post the video directly. But if you press, watch on Facebook, it will take you to the entire Mass. Or you can open the link HERE:

 

HAS POPE FRANCIS WITH HIS NEW LITURGICAL DOCUMENT OPENED THE PATH TO A NEW ROMAN MISSAL THAT BRINGS TRADITION AND NOVELTY TOGETHER?

 

As I have said too many time before, the liturgical way forward is for the normal reformed Roman Missal to follow the order and pre-Vatican II options of the Ordinariate’s Roman Missal, Divine Worship. 

The current modern Roman Missal needs only minor adjustments. The current lectionary need not be touched except in a few minor places. 

What is the way forward which the Ordinariate’s Missal also allows?

MORE OPTIONS TO PLEASE TRADITIONALIST:

1. The Introductory Rites reformatted to include the option of the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar; the option of the older form of the offertory prayers, the triple “Lord I am not worthy”; The Last Gospel as an option.

2. Mandating the saying or chanting the the proper antiphons, Introit, Offertory and Communion (not to exclude of course, metrical hymns if so desired, but in addition not instead).

3. Follow the 1965 Roman Missal Format which has the Latin in the margin as an option and the vernacular in the main section. And the vernacular should follow in the Roman Missal the format of the 1962 Missal.

4. Reinstate the Season of Septuagesima (with its proper liturgical readings) as well as rogation days.

5. While maintaining all the Eucharistic Prayers currently allowed, allow as an option an exclusively Latin Roman Canon with all the rubrics and form of the 1962 Roman Missal. This would keep the current vernacular Roman Canon with its rubrics, but clearly allow it to be prayed in Latin, quietly and with the rubrics of the 1962 Missal. 

I think this is a way to liturgical peace with the Traditionalists. I would also suggest that the other Sacraments be allowed in the older form. What would be the big deal with that?

THE HOLY FATHER AND HIS CANCEL THEOLOGY HAS SAWED OFF THE BRANCH THEY ARE SITTING UPON

 

As I stated in a post below, the Holy Father’s recent document on the Liturgy isn’t bad but it isn’t entirely good either. Like so much of this Pontiff’s pontificate, he spoils the good with the sour he always includes. Take for example his off-the-cuff statements to reporters after successful major pilgrimages. These are so controversial that the off-the-cuff statements completely overshadow a somewhat triumphal visit to various places. 

The same is true with His Holiness’ liturgical leadership. It isn’t entirely bad but not entirely good. The major problem with this pontificate and his interpretation of Vatican II is that he and his theology cancels what came before. And what this pontificate cancels gives example to another pontificate to cancel, the very pontificate of this pope. He has confirmed an ideological interpretation of Vatican II which cancels what came before.

Pope Benedict understood this. He understood well that the only way forward is not to cancel the road behind. His Christmas elocution to the cardinals of the Curia is the only way forward. To go the way of Pope Francis and his cancelation of two pontificates, one of a saint and one of a still living emeritus pope is not only poor taste but a major scandal. It is embarrassingly so. But also the scandal that is even greater is the “spirit of Vatican II” which cancels all other councils including the reforming Council of Trent. 

This article posted at Rorate Caeli is quite balanced and quite accurate:

“The Motu Proprio cut off the head of Benedict's line, and Desiderio buries its corpse” — Article by Luisella Scrosati