WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Augusta Georgia has had up until recently two state universities, Augusta State University, which up until ten years or so ago, was Augusta College and where I earned by undergraduate degree in 1976, and the Medical College of Georgia which was renamed only two years ago, Georgia Health and Sciences University (GHSU).

Well a few months back it was decided that Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University be merged into one university with a new name.

Many names were suggested and it boiled down to the following top three, none of which I really liked:

1. Georgia Arts and Sciences University

2. University of Augusta

3. Georgia Regents University

But a couple of days ago, the State of Virginia asks that the new name not be Georgia Regents University.

Officials from Regent Uni­ver­sity in Virginia wrote to the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents on Saturday requesting a different name from Georgia Regents University, which was recommended by a committee.

“We are concerned that there could be some confusion and dilute our brand,” Re­gent University President Carlos Campo said Monday.

Regent University enrolls 60 percent of its students online, many from Georgia.

The proposed name makes the Augusta institution sound as though it’s a branch of the 6,000-student Virginia school, Campo said.

He said Monday morning that he is trying to reach his Georgia counterparts by phone to discuss the matter in a friendly way so that the e-mail from his attorney isn’t the only communication.

Regent University, founded in 1978 by the Rev. Pat Robertson as CBN University, changed its name in 1990 and holds a trademark to the name. Campo said that he doesn’t want a court fight but that his attorney felt confident the school using the name longer would prevail.

When the Virginia school changed its name, it sought permission from the 600-student Regent College in Van­cou­ver, British Columbia, which raised no objection because the schools were in different countries.

Georgia officials might also want to avoid confusion because a state school has a different mission from a faith-based university. The Cana­dian school is also faith-based.

Campo cited the reaction from readers of The Augusta Chronicle who want the name of their city in the school’s new name. He suggested that was another reason for selecting one of the other proposed names forwarded to the board – Georgia Arts & Sciences University or the University of Augusta.

Well guess what? The Georgia Board of Regents today gave a new name to the once two separate schools and it will be, drum roll, please:

GEORGIA REGENTS UNIVERSITY!
GRU!

What's in a name?

And now I ask this in all earnest, once the name change is completed, can I say that I am a graduate of Georgia Regents University or do I have to say Augusta College which was defunct as a name 10 years ago? Just wondering.

NO NEED TO DELETE, LET'S JUST POST IT, LIKE A POST-IT NOTE!

I have a great admirer and promoter of my blog at Praytell, Bill DeHass who often drags my blog to praytell and has done so again. It won't make sense out of context but I print it here for response.

• From *Followers of the Preconciliar liturgy plan a pilgrimage to Rome* #34 – JD – “First, I was not intentionally indulging in hyperbole in what I said about Michael Davies. The passage I quoted is very close to sedevacantism, and it is not atypical of his writing. Davies’ overblown rhetoric has caused terrible anxiety for many Catholics, leading them to wonder whether the Holy Spirit has in fact abandoned the Church or whether they can trust the Church to withstand the gates of hell. It has led more than a few into the SSPX. His work represents bad scholarship, weak ecclesiology and pastoral recklessness. I didn’t know the man, he may have been perfectly gentle and personally saintly, but most of his published work is simply dreadful. So will happily amend my statement to “the odious writing of Michael Davies”, but I stand by that.”

• From that same post – #35 – AmcD – “There are many progressives who are equally guilty of driving people from the full communion of the Church or attracting them to a less than full communion experience of it in their particular take on the Church. The situation with the LCWR is a case in point, not in terms of all the good works they do, but some of their more “odious” theologies concerning the nature of the Church and Holy Orders. This last sentence of mine will raise the hackles of not just a few here who would canonize them, like so many on the right canonize SSPX. I absolutely agree with you in terms of your last paragraph, but it is a two way street. My comment here might be best under the “Deleted” post, but there is a tendency to allow the most godawful rhetoric directed toward traditionalists in terms of lace and cappas that gets a pass here and is even encouraged. It’s not so much that people don’t like these sorts of things, it goes way, way deeper and is much more insidious.”

Two different posts and folks appear to be walking past each other. Not sure that Mr. Day *walked back his Davies comment*? Would make some distinctions between hyperbole based upon research, experts in the field, studies, etc. and hyperbole based upon hyperbole (not facts) and all too often copied/pasted from other blogs. This results in unsupported hyperbole that, in many ways, is just another form of innuendo, gossip, etc.

Examples – Some are basically justifying *hyperbole* using a *tit for tat* methodology. If progressives have done something, then, traditionalists should also be able to respond in kind. As Fr. Ruff has stated to Allan a number of times, his narrative, all too often, starts with a couple of distant historical liturgical experiences (negative) that he then goes on to magnify; draw sweeping generalizations; and then basically he uses the same approach he condemns to justify his own *liturgical tinkering* (as others have commented – feels like he is repeating the same *sins* of the early 1970’s folks he condemns). Fr. Ruff characterized this as another form of *ad hominem* but *ad personal history*.
• One of the dividing lines appears to be the way one views the hierarchy and papal magisterium. Many experts have cited concerns about the growing “cult of personality” around the pope. Would suggest that when you base your decisions upon the pronouncements of one individual pope as if he has all certitude, you have reduced things to a new type of *relativity*. It reduces the church to a narrow, rigid institution. It loses the *both/and* of Vatican II starting with baptism and the people of God and then defining the various ministries and roles in the church. It can create situations that make a faith journey into a litmus test and reduces adult decisions, virtue of obedience, etc. into some type of blind, unthinking adherence to a catechism. It results in using terms such as *dissent*; *not in full communion* and an exercise in always making judgments rather than listening and dialoging. Always thought that part of the adult faith journey was to ask questions and seek understanding without being condemned or sanctioned because one had the temerity to question a papal pronouncement or curial document?
• What happens when a pope changes and decisions change, policies are revoked; etc. Where is *continuity* in this approach? It appears that many commenters reference council decisions, documents, and directives – these, at least, are more in continuity; if for no other reason than that councils don’t happen every 15-25 years. Councils also consist of bishops of the world (not the curia) which is the core of our church understanding in terms of leadership and office. We have also seen that taking a quote or paragraph from a specific pope may be out of context; this is then posited as a *fact* when in reality, that specific pope meant something completely different. And when you place so much upon papal pronouncements, what happens to your own bishop, what happens to the local church and community? What happens to *pastoral decisions* when a curial hierarchy dominates all dialogue?
• Interesting that certain neuralgic issues are used in these comments – examples: cappa magna, LCWR, ordination, etc. As some have said, these issues assume an importance that goes well beyond their value and results in using terms such as *odious*. When one uses this type of language:
• “There are two kinds of dissent in the Church today, that of liberal, progressives who have been and are still suggesting the deconstruction of the Church and “re-imaging” it according to the deleterious reconstruction of the Episcopal Church. The group that symbolizes this most, but is not alone, is the LCWR. The LCWR and groups like them do pose a serious threat for outright heresy. This is in the area of Holy Orders and the Magisterium of the Church where they strike at the heart of the Church and want to redefine the Church in the most false egalitarian way. But there is one major difference between the LCWR and the SSPX. The LCWR is subversive and disingenuous. They lack courage to ordain a bishop and set all their cards on the table. Whereas the SSPX has always been straight as an arrow in terms of their demands and laying all their cards on the table and then making extremely clear through the ordination of bishops their intent. The SSPX is honest the LWCR isn’t.
• This type of language is *odious* and goes along with an earlier Allan v Day exchange about liberal catholics that resulted in an Allan apology of sorts.

CHURCH MUSIC ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA'S WINTER CHANT INTENSIVE TO BE HELD AT SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH, MACON, GEORGIA IN JANUARY

Winter Chant Intensive 2013: January 7-11, 2013. St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon, Georgia. Rev. Allan J. McDonald, pastor. Details forthcoming.

I'm excited about this happening at St. Joseph Church. Ms. Arlene Oost-Zinner, will be directing this intensive. Pray that good ole Macon has spring like weather from January 7-11 and no snow or ice!

More details will be coming from the site that I link above.

DON'T THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER

Down below these preliminary remarks, I post a comment I made from the "Heterodoxy" post and two comments made in reaction to it.

I want to be clear that as a Catholic priest in good standing with the Church, that I accept Vatican II and all its documents. Of course Vatican II is a pastoral council so much of it will be pastoral in nature and thus not dogmatic. The Church of today is very different than the Church in which Vatican II took place.

I firmly believe some renewal was needed and that Vatican II has all that is necessary for the renewal. The problem is that once people are given an inch, they take a mile. Many in the Church's leadership, bishops, priests and men and women religious took light year miles in advancing thier causes. This is what has had a delerterous effect on the Church to this day in addition to all the societal and cultural changes that are independent of the Church.

However, the Church prior to Vatican II had a "circle the wagons" mentality to protect it from the Protestant Reformation. But the type of godless secularism that is much more dangereous for Catholics needs to be acknowledged and protection from it is necessary. There should be a greater fear of godless secularism compared to Reformed Protestantism.

The Church has had a two thousand year history and there is always great fomment and great strife after Ecumenical Councils and when there is religious, political and social upheaval.

I would just say that we should be more cautious than our reforming forebears who often threw the baby out with the bathwater in implementing what they thought was the spirit of Vatican II. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater of what Vatican II actually desire for the Church.

Pope Benedict's approach to Vatican II is the healthiest approach we've hand since the Council. Let's get behind His Holiness on this.

Blogger Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

One has to keep in mind that if the Extraordinary Form of the Mass did such a wonderful job of making for truly staunch Catholics, how is it that so many so easily abandoned not only it, but obedience to the faith and a fear of hell within a matter of a decade or less? These were pre-VAtican II Catholics who did this. Was there something intrinsically flawed about the dogmatism of the pre-Vatican II Church, over emphasis on externals and a pharisaic obsession with rules to the lack of a personal faith, and love for others that made many Catholics just down right mean spirited sorts of people? Just asking? I knew many pre-Vatican II Catholics who were quite fed up with being treated like children in Church, having to have "actual participation" passively and being caught up more with the letter of the law rather than its spirit. Many of them are in my family and felt liberated by Vatican II but then went in the other extreme.
Seems to me that the proper balance is needed, not the denial of our pre-Vatican II experiences and faith, especially that which was good and holy and not the denigration of Vatican II altogether since there is much good and holy there in much of the reforms many of which just went too far and eroded the faith of so many.

August 7, 2012 8:59 AM

Blogger Marc said...

That's a tough question, Father. Let me respond by pointing this out from your own comment:

People in your family were fed up with being treated like children in Church, with the way the did not participate at Mass, and with following the Law.

You see the difference? Prior to Vatican II, people might have had complaints, but they remained in the Church. After Vatican II, when people have complaints, they just stop going or go elsewhere.

Why? Because the Church's hierarcy ceased to present the Church as the bulwark of Truth and the sole Ark of Salvation. People like it easy and are selfish. Catholicism is difficult and selfless. Being a hedonist, Baptist, Methodist, you name it, is much easier than being a Catholic - so, when priests and bishops give the impression that false religions are just as good, well, why not take the easier route and ditch all that "Catholic guilt?"

That's a simplification to be certain. But, people are pretty simple when you get right down to it.

August 7, 2012 9:18 AM

Blogger Anonymous 5 said...

Fr. McD,

Good points. It raises the question of what would have happened to Mass attendance in the late '60s and '70s had there been no (or more restrained) liturgical changes.

My guess is that if Rome had stuck to its guns--had Paul VI kept churning out encyclicals after Humanae Vitae and actually disciplined and excommunicated dissidents, and had we kept the Anglicized version of the Tridentine Mass rather than going on to the NO--you may have seen the same declines. But I bet you would also have seen the modernist element leave the Church to a much greater degree, rather than staying and trying (with considerable success) to subvert it. The heretics only stayed within the institutional Church because they realized that the orthodox leaders of the day, when not fellow travelers, weren't going to oppose them and they could have their way. Better for them to have left. We's have a much easier job of reclaiming things today if they'd done so.

DO NUMBERS COUNT? DO NUMBERS LIE?

This is the only recording we have of our men's schola, which normally sings at our first Sunday of the month EF High Mass. This Mass was a normal Sunday Mass at 12:10 (Ordinary Form) for the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, but celebrated extraordinarily!


Yesterday, Sunday, August 5th, we had our monthly 2:00 PM Latin High Mass. Our men's schola as usual did a wonderful job with all they chanted. I especially love how they chant the Introit, but everything else is chanted so well and I absolutely love chanting the Credo (#3) as this is the only Mass we chant the Credo. It is required so if anyone complains, I tell them, speak to the Pope.

But after Mass, as best I could, I counted those who attended. There were probably 60 people altogether. But of those 60, there were about 30 young children! Yes, that tells you something.

I'd say I was the oldest one there apart from our deacon Don Coates who is older than me but looks younger, I think he dies his hair! No not really.

The parents with all the children must have been in their late 20's and early 30's.

We had to cancel the Mass for June and July and we did not advertise very well that we would have it in August. If we had, we would have had more there, maybe up to 80 or so.

The EF Mass is simply beautiful, but one has to have actual participation in a different way than what is normally experienced in the OF Mass. One has to be swept up in contemplative ecstasy and the "rational" part of the brain has to give way to God's transcendence, the mystery being made present, the love of God and the panoply of God's eternity made nugget size in the brief span of the Mass.

In the Ordinary Form, one gets caught up on the barrage of words and the noble simplicity that obscures or obfuscates the mystery that only faith can perceive and the heart acknowledges.

WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR THE HETERODOXY OF SO MANY CLERGY, RELIGIOUS AND LAITY TODAY?

Okay, there are a number of Catholics, a huge number, either through their own fault or not, have no clue as to what a true Catholic identity is. I tend to feel for them as they have been like sheep without a shepherd. And their shepherds have been so malformed that you really can't blame them entirely.

We have to go back to the post-Vatican II era and "Pandora's Box" that was opened for all kinds of experimentation and novelty in the Church as it regards the Mass, catechesis, the way religion is taught and the new morality. This has to be viewed in the overall cultural and societal upheaval of the 1960's and 1970's that affected everyone religious or not, Church or not and every institution. That has to be in the mix to evaluate all this.

However,we have to keep in mind that a slow shift in the Church has taken place since Pope John Paul II's election in 1978, only 13 years after the close of the Vatican Council. His long papacy combined with the tenure of Cardinal Ratzinger in the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and then as an extension of Pope John Paul's papacy as the pope himself has had a dramatic effect in the Church, so much so that "aging 'spirit of Vatican II' Catholics", both clergy and laity, are a dying breed but still very vocal, very revolutionary and very much in denial of the great harm they have caused the Church in their unbridled reform of the Church and/or their embrace of it.

I do not blame Vatican II entirely, although there is an unbridled optimism about itself contained in the documents themselves, which is far from infallible and some of the social changes the documents rely upon are far from infallible. But the manner in which reforms were carried out, that is the problem and the loss of Catholic identity in the ensuing years.

What were the deleterious effects of so much of the so-called "renewal" in the post Vatican II era?

1. A loss of respect for legitimate authority in the areas of faith, morals and canon law and a contempt for obedience.

2. The horizontal aspects of the Mass so emphasized that Catholics lost the reason for the Mass that it was and is the Church's way of worshipping the transcendent God and not for their emotional pleasure entirely.

3. The banality of so much of the renewal that leads to the loss of Catholic reverence and fidelity to their Church

4. Horrible catechesis and poor religious education materials

What is changing?

1. We now have the Catechism of the Catholic Church and catechesis is better.

2. The celebration of the Mass is better and is in a time of transition which will lead to the revision of the OF Mass and make it more like the EF Mass, but remaining the OF Mass.

3. Authority in the Church is being reasserted. This is going to be messy for the dying breed, but it is necessary!

IS AN ALL LATIN EXTRAORDINARY FORM MASS ITS WORST ENEMY THAT KEEPS IT FROM GROWING?

In the five years that Summorum Pontificum has been in effect, we have not seen a tremendous spread of the TLM like wildfire, although it certainly is better known today and celebrated regularly or not so regularly in many places.

Let's face it, there is not a huge number of people clamoring for it; usually they are a small minority in every parish.

For example, I placed in the bulletin prior to beginning the TLM here at St. Joseph a request that people fill out a form indicating if they would attend the TLM if offered here. I must have had only 130 forms filled out from a parish of about 1,400 families.

The first TLM we had was the very first day it was allowed, on the Solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 2007. It was a Friday night, it was storming, with Tornado watches. There was lightening and thunder! It was so liturgical! And the Church had a about 300 people!

However, after that time, our once a month 2:00 PM Sunday High Mass gets about 60 to 70 people and they come from all over, not just St. Joseph Church. Our Tuesday 5:00 PM Low Mass gets about 10 to 14 people regularly.

When we have special "concert style Mass settings sung by the choir" and in the evening for All Souls as in the photo above and for the Solemnity of St. Joseph and the Annunciation we might get 150 people.

I think the TLM fills a “niche” for those who are drawn to it, much like the charismatic movement and its spirituality and style of Masses. But we have to admit there is an antipathy amongst a rather large number of clergy who are not willing to allow this Mass in their parishes because they simply don’t like it and are fretful of pre-Vatican II things.

But I think, in addition to that, those of us in the clergy who are quite open to it are fearful of replacing one of our regular Ordinary Form Masses with the TLM as an imposition on those who for years have attended that particular Mass and have no desire for a Latin Mass. But these same people would be very upset if their English Ordinary Form Mass was made into a Spanish Ordinary Form Mass.

So I think the main problem with the TLM not advancing, apart from what I have described, is the language it is in, not its order, not its lectionary, not its ad orientem, not kneeling for Holy Communion, not its rubrics, not the quiet canon and certainly not its solemnity. If the TLM could be celebrated in English, save, lets say the Roman Canon,and perhaps a few other parts of the Mass, I think it would spread like wild-fire. Latin is the preventative.

But then again, perhaps having the EF Mass is a way to maintain our Latin heritage in all places, the Latin Rite, and the remnant who like it and celebrate it will do it for the rest of the Church. I’m conflicted as you can see.

But I have to tell everyone when I replaced the English greetings of the Mass about two years prior to the new English Translation, with the Latin Greetings, there was a huge number of people who took great offense at it, some of whom went to other churches in town (they were a small minority). However, over the course of that two year period, people were replying with the Latin Responses with quite a bit of gusto!

Finally, the Sunday Mass we had for the Solemnity of Saint John the Baptist which was thoroughly an Ordinary Form Mass with the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei chanted in Latin and everything else chanted in English and with the Introductory and Concluding Rites at the Chair and the Liturgy of the Eucharist Ad Orientem was very, very well received. I did not hear one bad thing about it.

That may be the way to go, to make our 12:10 PM Sunday Mass a hybrid or all English but celebrated as I described our Nativity of St. John the Baptist Mass.

Let's face it, the majority in this parish do not want the TLM at a regularly scheduled Mass. Those who want it, don't like it at 2:00 PM. I will not be in the parish the first Sunday of October when we have the additional Mass, so I have to cancel it or else Fr. Dawid would have five Masses on Sunday with is forbidden by canon law. Technically we can only say two a day, three by way of dispensation ,but I don't believe any of us have a dispensation for four masses and certainly not for five.

You have to keep in mind the nature of parishes and the resources of these parishes and that the pastor has to make pastoral decisions sometimes by fiat. It's good to be king and have canon law back you up!

WILL THE HOLY FATHER "PRESIDE" OR "CELEBRATE" THE EXTRAORIDNAY FORM OF THE MASS WHEN ADHERANTS MAKE A PILGRIMAGE TO ROME IN NOVEMBER? THE SUSPENSE MOUNTS!

My comments first: As far as anyone knows, Pope Benedict has not celebrated Mass in the Extraordinary Form since becoming the Bishop of Rome, not even privately.

But with a large group of adherents to the 1962 missal making a pilgrimage to Rome for the Year of Faith, will the Holy Father speak to them and will His Holiness offer Mass for them in the Extraordinary Form?

Because papal Masses are so complicated in the Extraordinary Form, may yes, but I suspect maybe no he won't offer Mass in this form.

However, nothing is stopping His Holiness from presiding at such a Mass. Presiding in this sense has a very canonical definition. When a bishop, including the Bishop of Rome presides at a Mass, that means He is not the celebrant and he doesn't wear liturgical garb, such as the chasuble and stole. Rather, he dresses in choir dress, which for the Holy Father, I suspect, could also include the cope, but I'm not sure and simply participate in the Liturgy in this way. I believe he did so at an Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy when visiting Turkey, if I am not mistaken.

At any rate, for the Holy Father to "preside" at an EF Mass would be a wonderful gesture, but for His Holiness to celebrate it would be out of this world!

Year of Faith: The first meeting of faithful in favour of the rules of the “Summorum Pontificum” has been called for 3 November and will take place in the Vatican. The faithful are hoping for a speech from the Pope

Andrea Tornielli
vatican city

The faithful who follow the traditional Latin rite of Mass thanks to the Summorum Pontificum, the Apostolic Letter issued “motu proprio” by Benedict XVI IN 2007, will meet in Rome for a pilgrimage linked to the Year of Faith. The pilgrimage will conclude with a Mass celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica. The news was announced in the last few hours.

“Various representatives of groups of lay faithful, including the international federation One Voice and the Italian Summorum Pontificum’s National Coordination office have just instituted the “Coetus internationalis pro Summorum Pontificum” in Rome. The purpose of this is to organise an international pilgrimage of pro Summorum Pontificum associations, groups and movements during the Year of Faith. The pilgrimage will end with a Mass celebration in St. Peter’s on Saturday 3 November 2012. An official presentation of the event will be given on 10 September.”

Organisers have explained that the event is intended as “a big mobilization initiative in Rome, leading all faithful who are devoted to the Holy Liturgy and the Holy Father, the Pope, on a pilgrimage of prayer. Now more than ever, with all the attacks on his sacred person, the Pope is in need of our unanimous manifestation of affection, obedience and charitable support. Let the organising begin.”

This will not the first time the Latin Rite Mass of 1962 - according to the last of the Missals that precede the post-conciliar liturgical reform - celebrated in St. Peter’s. German cardinal Walter Brandmüller presided over a traditional rite mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on 17 March 2011, at the end of a convention on the Summorum Pontificum issued “motu proprio” in Rome.

Organisers said nothing about a potential meeting with the Pope, although the Coetus internationalis pro Summorum Pontificum is hoping that Benedict XVI will be present and greet pilgrims who will come to Rome from all across the world.

In September 2010, three years after the implementation of the “motu proprio”, the Paix Liturgique group published some figures on the situation in a newsletter. The quantitative and qualitative study concerned thirty countries where Catholicism has the strongest presence. It looked into the number of traditional masses on offer, their frequency and the times held, to assess for example whether these times were convenient for families. The situation was monitored in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, India, the Philippines, New Zealand, South Africa, Gabon and Nigeria.

The data was obtained from two independent sources. The findings revealed that the Tridentine Mass is celebrated in 1.444 locations. Of these, 340 celebrate mass once a week; 313 celebrate Sunday mass but not regularly, so not every week; 324 celebrate mass every Sunday but at times that are not convenient for families (so not between 9 and 12). Finally, 467 places celebrate mass every Sunday at family friendly times. Essentially, one in three masses are family friendly (32, 3%), whilst one in four masses is not celebrated on Sunday.

An interesting comparison can be drawn between the masses celebrated by the Society of St. Pius X, not taken into account in the first figure which did take into consideration masses celebrated according to Benedict XVI’s “motu proprio”. Lefebvrian groups organise a total of 690 masses and one in two of these is celebrated according to Benedict XVI’s “motu proprio” and in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the difficulties and the resistance shown, a growing number of people are slowly becoming familiar with the Traditional Rite Mass.

WHAT ABOUT AN ORDINARY FORM ORDER AND RUBRICS OF THE 1962 LATIN MISSAL??????????

As you know, I've often touted that our current 2012 English Roman Missal have an Extraordinary Form Order for it, which would be using all the prayers, (except only the Roman Canon) and having the Prayers at the Foot of the altar recovered, and the entire order of the 1962 Missal, along with its offertory prayers. All the rubrics too, but still use the translated English Prayers, calendar, and additional Masses and prefaces of the 2012 English Roman Missal. I would recommend also maintaining the revised OF lectionary, but add the option of a gradual and/or tract in place of the Responsorial Psalm and to celebrate the Liturgy of the Word as in the OF, not the EF order.

But what about this, boys and girls?

What if we had an Ordinary Form of the 1962 missal and maintained everything in Latin from the 1962 missal's prayers, but in the Ordinary Form's order and rubrics including its lectionary and style of celebrating the Mass of Catechumens? Of course that means for the chanted Mass that only the 1962 Latin Introit would be chanted as the processional, with the Sign of the Cross, greeting, Penitential Act (only using the Confiteor of the 1962 Missal) absolution, Kyrie, Gloria and Collect (from the chair).

The offertory procession, with the OF offertory in Latin, but the EF's Offertory Antiphon.

The 1962 Latin Secret

Only the Latin prefaces in the 1962 missal and the Roman Canon but with OF rubrics.

Communion Antiphon as priest receives Holy Communion and the OF Communion practices for the laity.

Prayer after Holy communion from the 1962 Missal and the OF's Latin blessing and dismissal.

LET ALL WHO THIRST COME TO THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE HIGH MASS AT SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH, MACON, AT 2:00 PM, AUGUST 5TH, 2012 ANNO DOMINI! 10TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Oh, the glory of Summorum Pontificum! For the lay faithful and clergy who so choose it, it is available for all to experience this Sunday, August 5th at 2:00 PM at Saint Joseph Catholic Cathedral, I mean Church, the corner of Poplar and New Streets in historic downtown Macon, Georgia, the Heart of Georgia and the Sacred Heart of the World! (Hyperbole folks, don't get excited!)

10th Sunday after Pentecost
Green 2 Cl. (Semiduplex)

INTROIT: Ps. 54:17, 18, 20, 23

Cum clamarem ad Dominum, exaudivit vocem meam, ab his qui appropinquant mihi : et hu-miliavit eos, qui est ante sæcula, et manet in æternum. Ps. ibid. 2: Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam, et ne despexeris deprecationem meam : intende mihi, et exaudi me. = Gloria.

When I cried to the Lord, he heard my voice, from them that draw near to me; and he humbled them, who is before all ages, and remains for ever : cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. Ps. ibid. 2: Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me and hear me. = Glory.

COLLECT

Deus, qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime et miserando manifestas : multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam; ut ad tua promissa currentes cælestium bonorum facias esse consortes. Per Dominum.

O God, who dost chiefly manifest thine almighty power by showing pity and mercy : increase thy mercy towards us that, hastening after thy promises, we may be made partakers of the heavenly treasures. Through our Lord.

EPISTLE: 1 Cor. 12:2-11

Lectio Epistolæ beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios.
Fratres : Scitis quoniam, cum gentes essetis, ad simulacra muta prout ducebamini euntes. Ideo notum vobis facio, quod nemo in Spiritu Dei loquens dicit : Anathema Jesu. Et nemo potest dicere : Dominus Jesus, nisi in Spiritu Sancto. Divisiones vero gratiarum sunt, idem autem Spiritus. Et divisiones ministrationum sunt, idem autem Dominus. Et divisiones operatio-num sunt, idem vero Deus, qui operatur omnia in omnibus. Unicuique autem datur manifesta-tio Spiritus ad utilitatem. Alii quidem per Spiritum datur sermo sapientiæ : alii autem ser-mo scientiæ secundum eundem Spiritum : alteri fides in eodem Spiritu : alii gratia sanitatum in uno Spiritu : alii operatio virtutum, alii prophe-tia, alii discretio spirituum, alii genera lingua-rum, alii interpretatio sermonum. Hæc autem omnia operatur unus atque idem spiritus, dividens singulis prout vult.

A lesson from the Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians.

Brethren: You know that, when you were heathens, you went to dumb idols, according as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God saith: Anathema to Jesus; and no man can say: The Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of min-istries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom; and to another, the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another, faith in the same Spirit; to another, the grace of healing in one Spirit; to another, the working of mir-acles; to another, prophecy; to another, the discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; to an-other, interpretation of speeches. But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to everyone according as he will.

GRADUAL: Ps. 16:8, 2

Custodi me, Domine, ut pupillam oculi : sub umbra alarum tuarum protege me. = De vultu tuo judicium meum prodeat : oculi tui videant æquitatem.

Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of thine eye : protect me under the shadow of thy wings. = Let my judg-ment come forth from thy countenance; let thine eyes behold the things that are equitable.

ALLELUIA: Ps. 64:2

Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion : et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.

A hymn, O God, becometh thee in Sion : and a vow shall be paid to thee in Jerusalem.

GOSPEL: Lk. 18:9-14

Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam.
In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus ad quosdam, qui in se confidebant tamquam justi, et aspernabantur ceteros, parabolam istam : Duo homines ascen-derunt in templum ut orarent, unus Pharisæus, et alter publicanus. Pharisæus stans, hæc apud se orabat : Deus, gratias ago tibi, quia non sum sicut ceteri hominum : raptores, injusti, adulteri; velut etiam hic publicanus. Jejuno bis in sabba-to : decimas do omnium quæ possideo. Et publicanus a longe stans, nolebat nec oculos ad cælum levare : sed percutiebat pectus suum, dicens : Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori. Dico vobis, descendit hic justificatus in domum suam ab illo; quia omnis qui se exaltat, humiliabitur; et qui se humiliat, exaltabitur.

Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St Luke.

At that time: Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted to themselves as just, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extor-tioners, unjust, adulterers; as also is this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I pos-sess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say to you: This man went down to his house jus-tified rather than the other : because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that hum-bleth himself shall be exalted.

OFFERTORY: Ps. 24:1-3, 5, 16

Ad te, Domine, levavi animam meam : Deus meus, in te confido, non erubescam : neque irrideant me inimici mei : *etenim universi qui te exspectant, non confundentur. = Dirige me in veritate tua et doce me, quia tu es Deus salutaris meus : et te sustinui tota die. *Etenim. = Respice in me et miserere mei, Domine, custodi animam meam et eripe me, non confundar, quoniam invocavi te. *Etenim.

To thee have I lifted up my soul : in thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed : neither let my enemies laugh at me : *for none of them that wait on thee shall be confounded. = Direct me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation : and on thee have I waited all day long. *For none. = Look thou upon me, and have mercy on me, O Lord, keep my soul and deliver me, let me not be confounded, for I have called upon thee. *For none.

SECRET

Tibi, Domine, sacrificia dicata reddantur : quæ sic ad honorem nominis tui deferenda tribuisti, ut eadem remedia fieri nostra præstares. Per Dominum.

May this sacrifice be consecrated to thee, O Lord, which thou dost grant us so to offer for the honour of thy name that it may be a remedy for our souls. Through our Lord.

PREFACE Of the Trinity:

Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper, et ubique, gratias agere : Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, æterne Deus. Qui cum Unigenito Filio tuo, et Spiritu Sancto, unus es Deus, unus es Dominus : non in unius singularitate personæ, sed in unius Trinitate substantiæ. Quod enim de tua gloria, revelante te, credimus, hoc de Filio tuo, hoc de Spiritu Sancto, sine differentia discretionis sentimus. Ut in confessione veræ sempiternæ-que Deitatis, et in personis proprietas, et in essentia unitas, et in majestate adoretur æqua-litas. Quam laudant Angeli, atque Archangeli, Cherubim quoque ac Seraphim : qui non cessant clamare quotidie, una voce dicentes :

It is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God : who with thine only-begotten Son and the Holy Ghost art one God, one Lord; not in the oneness of a single person, but in the Trinity of one substance. For that which we believe from thy revelation concerning thy glory, that same we believe of thy Son, that same of the Holy Ghost, without difference or separation. So that in confessing the true and everlasting Godhead, we shall adore distinction in persons, oneness in being, and equality in majesty; which Angels and Archangels, the Cher-ubim too and the Seraphim do praise; day by day they cease not to cry out, saying, as with one voice:

COMMUNION: Ps. 50:21

Acceptabis sacrificium justitiæ, oblationes et holocausta, super altare tuum, Domine.

Thou wilt accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and holocausts, upon thine altar, O Lord.

POST-COMMUNION

Quæsumus, Domine Deus noster : ut quos divinis reparare non desinis sacramentis, tuis non destituas benignus auxiliis. Per Dominum.

We beseech thee, O Lord, our God, that in thy mercy thou wouldst never deprive those of thy help whom thou dost not cease to refresh with the divine sacra-ments. Through our Lord.

– THE SAINT JOHN FISHER MISSALE –
http://musicasacra.

LCWR AND SSPX, THE VATICAN IS DEALING WITH DISSENT

My comments first: There are two kinds of dissent in the Church today, that of liberal, progressives who have been and are still suggesting the deconstruction of the Church and "re-imaging" it according to the deleterious reconstruction of the Episcopal Church. The group that symbolizes this most, but is not alone, is the LCWR.

The other kind of dissent is from traditionalist conservatives who seem to reject a goodly portion of the Second Vatican Council, but more deleterious, reject the authority of the pope in the area of discipline, not so much faith and morals. This group is symbolized by the SSPX but there are others too.

The second group has been more of a threat to Church unity for they had an archbishop who was at Vatican II and worked closely with the Vatican who eventually defied direct orders of the the Vatican not to ordain bishops without papal approval. This act alone is certainly an act at the basis of all schism. It is very similar to what happens in China today and the challenges of the Chinese government toward the authority of the pope in ordaining bishops without papal approval in the Chinese Nationalistic Church which in fact has valid Holy Orders similar to the SSPX.

Liberal progressive Catholicism, while without a bishop who defies the Pope and then ordains other bishops, does tend to reject the patrimony of the Church and acts as though Vatican II created a new Church. They read the documents of Vatican II as though there were no other ecumenical councils or a 2000 year tradition of Catholic Faith. In fact, they would pose a much greater threat for not only schism but heresy if they had a bishop like Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who could organize them into a similar society as the SSPX.

Unlike the LCWR and groups like it, the SSPX poses no real heretical threat whatsoever to the Magisterium of the Church. Their issues are more disciplinary and have to do with non-infallible teachings and tend to be more relational and disciplinary such as the revision of the Mass, religious liberty, ecumenicism and inter-faith relations, not to mention the Church's dance with godless secularism. While the Church tries to respect all, not all respect the Church and the greatest threat to the Church is not its relations with Protestants, Jews and other world religions, but with the godless secularism of a worldwide government.

The LCWR and groups like them do pose a serious threat for outright heresy. This is in the area of Holy Orders and the Magisterium of the Church where they strike at the heart of the Church and want to redefine the Church in the most false egalitarian way.

They promote the ordination of women which turns upside down the entire sacramental economy of the Church and makes it null and void. That's serious, heretical stuff! That is schismatic.

But there is one major difference between the LCWR and the SSPX. The LCWR is subversive and disingenuous. They lack courage to ordain a bishop and set all their cards on the table. Whereas the SSPX has always been straight as an arrow in terms of their demands and laying all their cards on the table and then making extremely clear through the ordination of bishops their intent. The SSPX is honest the LWCR isn't.

The following are excerpts from an interview by John Allen of the NCR with German Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller,the new prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. I think the Holy Father was brilliant in naming him the new head for he grasps what is at stake:


During the interview, Müller was asked about the doctrinal congregation's discussions with both the Lefebvrites, meaning the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, and "the American sisters," a reference to LCWR.

In response, Müller signaled a fairly tough line on principle for both groups: "There are no negotiations about the Word of God, and one can't simultaneously believe and not believe," he said. "One can't pronounce the three religious vows and then not take them seriously, just as one can't make reference to the tradition of the church and then accept it only in some parts."

Unbidden, Müller brought up the question of women's ordination, perhaps suggesting he regards this as central to the dispute with LCWR.

"Priestly ministry can't be considered a sort of position of earthly power, thinking there will be emancipation only when everyone can occupy it," he said, calling for an end to "polemics and ideology" and for "immersion in the doctrine of the church."

Müller then hinted he would like to turn a corner in relations with the American sisters.

"Precisely in America, women and men religious have accomplished extraordinary things for the church, for the education and formation of youth," he said. "Christ needs youth who follow this path and who identify themselves with its fundamental choice. The Second Vatican Council affirmed marvelous things for the renewal of religious life, as for the common vocation to holiness."

"It's important to reinforce mutual trust," Müller said, "rather than working against one another."

More broadly, Müller said he'd like to stress the positive role of the doctrinal congregation.

"Here I see one of the great duties of the congregation and of the church in general: We have to rediscover the faith and make it resplendent again as a positive force, as a force of hope and a resource for overcoming conflicts and tensions," he said.

LEAVE IT TO THE PROGRESSIVES IN VERMONT TO IMPROVE ON THE DEFINITION OF ROAD RAGE!

YOU CAN READ THE YAHOO NEWS ACCOUNT BY PRESSING HERE.

IS IS TIME AGAIN FOR ANATHAMAS AND EXCOMMUNICATIONS TO ASSURE A PURER, FAITHFUL AND MORE HOLY CLERGY AND LAITY?

How can you tell these are not LCWR sisters or dissenting sisters?

And did Judas inspire this Judas "Catholic" and his vision for the Church which has contributed to the greatest crisis in the Church since the early Church heresies?

There is great irony in the fact that Chick-Fil-A owned by a Southern Baptist Family has allowed the spirit of Vatican II Catholic chickens to come home to roost and show orthodox, practicing Catholics just what the spirit of Vatican II Catholics have done to our holy Church.

I copy below an article on an administrative assistant to Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno, who describes himself as a Catholic sometimes going to Church. This is what this "spirit" of Vatican II Catholic had to say about Cardinal Francis George and his teachings on marriage:

“It’s unfortunate that the cardinal, as often happens, picks parts of the Bible and not other parts,” said Moreno, who added that he was raised Catholic in western Illinois, attended a Catholic grade school and was an altar boy. Moreno said he now occasionally attends church.

“The Bible says many things,” Moreno said. “For the cardinal to say that Jesus believes in this, and therefore we all must believe in this, I think is just disingenuous and irresponsible. The God I believe in is one about equal rights, and to not give equal rights to those that want to marry, is in my opinion un-Christian.”

My comments: This politician is using the "talking points" of the Democrat party as it concerns same sex marriage, that no one has the right to interpret Scripture except those who are promoting same sex marriage! I've heard this mantra time and time again from the talking heads on the various networks when same sex marriage is the topic and religion is brought into it. It is heresy pure and simple and needs to be condemned from the highest sources of our Church!

Like the LWCR, Call to Action groups, Voice of the Faithful, all dissenting groups that oppose the Holy Roman Catholic Church, her pope and bishops in union with him, Moreno is a heretic.

Should not the pope and the bishops in union with him start issuing a "syllabus of errors," censures and excommunications? Moreno has clearly placed himself outside of what is acceptable in the Catholic Church, not just his opinions about civil marriage, but his diatribe against the Cardinal and the Cardinal's legitimate role in explaining and defending the faith.

Folks, the wrong interpretation of Vatican II, one of rupture with our glorious past, has led to Moreno type Catholics and they are now legion in the Church. They are sinking the Barque of Peter and it is way past time for the Magisterium to plug the holes these dissenting Catholics have drilled and throw the ones who drilled the holes overboard.

By Bridget Doyle, Chicago Tribune reporter

11:59 a.m. CDT, August 2, 2012

Chicago Cardinal Francis George has stepped in the ring on Chick-fil-A’s gay marriage controversy in a blog post, criticizing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s statement that the fast food chain’s values “are not Chicago values.”

“Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the ‘values’ that must be held by citizens of Chicago,” George wrote on the Archdiocese of Chicago's blog Sunday. “I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city?”

George went on to write: “Approval of state-sponsored homosexual unions has very quickly become a litmus test for bigotry. … Surely there must be a way to properly respect people who are gay or lesbian without using civil law to undermine the nature of marriage.”

Last week, Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno, 1st, announced he will block Chick-fil-A's effort to build its second Chicago store in Logan Square because the chain's top executive has made clear his opposition to gay marriage.

Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Colleen Dolan said George stands by his blog post on what she called “religious freedom” and said this isn’t the first time the cardinal has sounded off on the issue of gay marriage.

“He’s given many talks and has a lot to say on the freedom of religion and the freedom to be Catholic,” Dolan said. “He doesn’t say things frivolously.”

Of the two and a half years the archdiocese has maintained a blog, Dolan said this post has gotten “by far the largest response we’ve seen – most of it overwhelmingly positive.”

An Emanuel spokeswoman on Wednesday declined to comment on George’s remarks.

Moreno, who touched off the debate last week, fired back at George.

“It’s unfortunate that the cardinal, as often happens, picks parts of the Bible and not other parts,” said Moreno, who added that he was raised Catholic in western Illinois, attended a Catholic grade school and was an altar boy. Moreno said he now occasionally attends church.

“The Bible says many things,” Moreno said. “For the cardinal to say that Jesus believes in this, and therefore we all must believe in this, I think is just disingenuous and irresponsible. The God I believe in is one about equal rights, and to not give equal rights to those that want to marry, is in my opinion un-Christian.”

Moreno also called the cardinal’s reference in the blog to a fictional Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities “hyperbole and rhetoric.”

Moreno noted the church scandal surrounding pedophilia among priests, questioning George’s right to the “moral high ground on equal rights.”

Moreno, who has called gay marriage the civil rights issue of our time, also said the mayor and he are not trying to force their values on anyone, but rather to ensure equal rights.

Tribune reporters Hal Dardick and Kristen Mack contributed.

Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune

THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL AND IT IS SO DAMN STEREOTYPICAL OF PURITANTICAL LIBERALS

I worked at the Dairy Queen/Brazier in Augusta, GA from the time I was 14 until I was 19 years old. This server deserves her pay in gold for her cool, calm and direct approach to a customer that sounds like so many who have a faux morality in the Church and out of the Church. Conservatives are stereotyped with preoccupation of sexual sins, whereas liberals are preoccupied by sins of institutions as though institutions could sin!

This video makes my blood boil!

DANGER OF INFECTION FROM COMMON COMMUNION CHALICES--AN UNDERESTIMATED RISK?

From a liturgical and theological point of view, I have no problem with the laity receiving the Precious Blood. I've always been in parishes since 1976 that allow it for every Mass every day.

My personal problem has more to do with hygiene, the spread of bacteria, viruses and the like.

There are also some concerns about spillage and backwash of saliva in the chalice after so many have consumed and the need to cleanse the chalices by drinking the ablutions. The thought of it disgusts me.

I believe intinction is the perfect solution and I would recommend that it be allowed for every Mass EF or OF! So there.

Liturgists who are more concerned with liturgical correctness rather than public health will cringe at the following findings and will continue their now tiresome charade of saying this isn't true.

Never mind that throughout America three years ago, the common chalice was banned during the H1N1 flu virus, the first time ever that bishops in the Church acknowledged that the common chalice could be lethal for those who approach it if contaminants of germs, bacteria and viruses are on the rim of the chalice or the mix of Precious Blood and backwash. One could actually contract a deadly flu virus! That was a monumental acknowledgment!

There is a study that concurs with my concerns and it is here:

Danger of infection from communion cups--an underestimated risk?

Zentralblatt fur Hygiene und Umweltmedizin International journal of hygiene and environmental medicine (1998)
Volume: 201, Issue: 2, Pages: 167-188



The problem of a risk of infection from the common use of chalices has been discussed controversially in literature. Opinions were mainly based on laboratory experiments and theoretical considerations. The authors examined bacterial counts and species existing under normal conditions after communion. For this purpose, contact samples were taken from the inside and outside of chalices at the rim. Staphylococci and alpha-haemolytic streptococci were found on all chalices examined. On more than 80%, there were apathogenic micrococci, nonhaemolytic streptococci, apathogenic neisseria and apathogenic corynebacteria as well as lactobacilli and bacilli. Staphylococcus aureus was found on 26.4% of chalices. Although the risk of infection for healthy persons from a commonly used chalice can be rated as low, it should not be underestimated for persons with reduced resistance and immunocompetence, or with reduced defences as a result of therapeutic measures. From the hygienic point of view, the most favourable approaches to avoid infection would be the use of individual chalices for all participants in the communion or the immersion of wafers or bread in wine or in grape juice by the priest (intinction).

DO YOU THINK SPIRIT OF VATICAN II CATHOLICS HAVE ANY CLUE ABOUT WHAT VATICAN II ACTUALLY CALLED THE LAITY TO DO? HELL NO! BUT DAN CATHY, A SOUTHERN BAPTIST DOES IT OUT OF BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES ALONE! WHY CAN'T CATHOLICS?

"I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say 'we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage' and I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about" Dan Cathy, CEO, Chick-Fil-A

Yes, Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-Fil-A is a layman of the Southern Baptist Church. In his capacity as a layperson called to witness to His Lord and Church, he made the remarks you can read and hear above.

Dan Cathy did not need the Second Vatican Council to encourage him to take his faith to the market place. He knew that he had to do that simply from Biblical principles.

Yet how many Roman Catholics, called by the same Biblical principles and in addition to that, by the Second Vatican Council, to bring their Catholic faith to the market place would do what Dan Cathy has done?

Sadly, the mayor of Boston who I believe is a Catholic cannot do it. He is afraid and he is a coward and he is a Judas.

Roman Catholics in the northeast, Midwest and other progressive parts of this country need to understand one thing. They need to understand that true ecumenism means finding common ground with conservative, Bible believing Christians not with progressive liberals who want to deconstruct the Bible and the Church in order to be social engineers of an neo-pagan culture that is like the cult of the emperor in Roman times.

Dan Cathy understands very well the prophetic role of the Church and of that of the Old Testament prophets. His prophetic words have gotten him into hot water with those who hate Christianity, the Bible and traditional, conservative Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Dan Cathy is experiencing why Old Testament prophets called by God to be prophets resisted the call. They knew what would happen to them when they spoke God's truth to a progressive, non-believing world and the truth to God's very own people who had come to deny the truths of God by word and actions.

Catholics wake up. The Southern Baptists don't have a monopoly on promoting the truth and the prophetic messages of God!

Spirit of Vatican II Catholics, are you Judas or are you Jonah?

TO THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO MANIPULATE CULTURE AND DENIGRATE NATURAL LAW AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF: CHICK-FIL-A RAN OUT OF FOOD AND CLOSED EARLY IN MANY PLACES ON WEDNESDAY!

The Chick-Fil-A near my mother's home where I go to the drive through window each Monday to bring some home for lunch with my mom, ran out of food on Wednesday so many customers did they have! This is in this morning Augusta Chronicle:

Augusta Chick-fil-A runs out of food, closes early

By Stephen N. Dethrage
Staff Writer

Wednesday, Aug 1, 2012 9:23 PM
Last updated Thursday, Aug 2, 2012 2:36 AM

One Augusta Chick-fil-A restaurant had to close Wednesday when it ran out of food.


'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day' draws long lines


“Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” resulted in a surge of customers so large that the restaurant on Robert C. Daniel Parkway sold everything it had and closed two hours early.

According to a manager there, the branch, which normally stays open until 10 p.m. had to shut its doors at 8, and its employees stood in the parking lot, turning customers away.

The restaurant on Washington Road didn’t have to close, but when the manager was asked to comment on the day’s business at 9 p.m., he said the lines were still too long for him to stop and talk.

EXALTING THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE COMMON GOOD

R. Michael Dunnigan writing for The Catholic World Report's The End of the Age of Distraction, which you can read by pressing this sentence, says that the Catholic bishops of this country have begun a new way of teaching the truths of the Church and have moved away from the 1960's through the 90's liberalism that so formed many of their teachings thus diluting the real moral authority of the Church.

I was ordained in 1980 and most of the more controversial teachings of the bishops came out in the 1980's what was called "The Catholic Moment" becasue these teachings endeared the bishops to the main street press of the day and they got lots of coverage.

I tried heroically as a liberal priest in the 1980's to tow the bishops' line on all that they were writing. Bishop Raymond W. Lessard, emeritus bishop of our Diocese who at one time was the chairperson of the Bishops' Doctrine Committee was always very pleased with the work of the USCCB and wanted it promoted in our diocese.

Of course it was a hard sell to rank and file southerners and active military personnel and retired as well, which Georgia has a huge number.

Meanwhile as the bishops were saving the world with their verbose teachings that were winning accolades in the liberal media, their own house was burning down by other liberal leaning characteristics that had compromised so much of what the Church's patrimony was in terms of care and concern for the faithful.

You guess it, it was the sex abuse scandal that was taking place even as the bishops were the toast of the town with their liberal letters on this, that and the other. The sexual abuse scandal would eventually make them just toast in the eyes of the liberal media and rank and file Catholics.

It seems that since the 1960's when the bishops of the Church starting a rather romantic dance with psychology, which up until that time, most in the hierarchy were rather leery of, and as the me-generation of the 1960's infected so much of Catholic theology and practice elevating the individual far above the common good, we saw bishops turning over problem priests to the expertise of psychologists who told the bishops they could cure whatever malady a priest had with drugs, therapy and prayer, that like Jesus and his miracles, psychology could do it again in the imminent escathology theology of the day that said we, yes we, could bring about the escaton! You've heard of "Toys R Us?" Well psychologists were "Healing R Us" and the bishop took the bait, hook, line and sinker.

So the individual and his problems were the most important issues to address and not the common good of parish communities and the Church in general.

Priests who had abused mostly teenagers, but some who had been serial pedophiles were sent to comfortable church run, hotel like therapy centers and pampered for months at a time until they were deemed cured and sent back with a regimen of things to do to stay healthy especially 12 step programs.

Who was left out of this picture? The victims and the common good of parishes and those these priests had abused and could abuse again. It is the exaltation the needs of the individual over the common good, pure and simple.

And it manifests itself in so many other progressive, left leaning ways today. A woman wants to be a priest, so she must have a vocation, ordain her or push for ordination of women. Homosexuals want marriage relationships, their needs trump the common good and so we have liberals pushing the agenda of homosexuals to the detriment of the common good for which they could care less for the individual and narcissism are the high gods and goddesses of this fierce individualism. To hell with divine law and natural law and hello to whatever makes the individual happy.

Look at those who reject Humanae Vitae not only in terms of artificial birth control but also abortion and even late term abortions. Why do they reject it? Because these teachings while promoting the common good call for the limitation of individualism when it comes to sex and gratification. Even a child now is see as a disease by many that can be eliminated through medical procedures even the potential for a child. A child might hurt the individual's lifestyle and ability to get ahead in the world and become wealthy. Why spend money on a large family when a small family can have more and more and now.

It is all rather sad that Catholics have been seduced by the evil one who makes individual so-called happiness to the detriment of all who are harmed,(potential child, unborn child and sex abuse victims) the number one choice in one's life. In other words, the devil is at the core of the denigration of the common good and the exaltation of the individual.

P.S. Don't expect the liberals in the Church or the mass media ever to lump the following victims of fierce individualism together:
potential children, aborted children and sex abuse children and teenage victims. It messes up their agenda.

OUR PARISH STAFF PROTESTED INTOLERANT LIBERALS IN THE NORTHEAST, MID WEST AND WEST AND ATE OUR FILL OF CHICK-FIL-A TODAY! IT WAS GOOD!

I heard somewhere that the ACLU is supporting Chick-fil-A's right to expand its business to such horrid god-forsaken places as Boston and Chicago, places where liberal America is forfeiting its right to free speech and tolerance and paying homage, worship and praise to so-called progressive political governments and its dictatorial fiats.

But not so in the south where Chick-Fil-A was born. Today we honor its CEO who is publicly professing his Christian faith, and stating his beliefs about natural law and the divinely revealed nature of marriage as between one man and one women.

We had our Chick-Fil-A today for lunch and our DRE who picked it up said that the place was packed and cars circled the lot for the pick up window.

The same is true in other Georgia communities which you can read by pressing the following links:

THE MACON TELEGRAPH (WARNER ROBINS HAS A AIR FORCE BASE, BIGGEST EMPLOYER IN GEORGIA AND IS IN THE COUNTY BELOW MACON AND IS CALLED HOUSTON COUNTY BUT NOT LIKE IN TEXAS BUT LIKE THE HOUSE YOU LIVE IN.

THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE
And from Providence, Rhode Island, you have this meme. Is it any wonder the Catholic Church is dying on the vine up there?

SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH AT ITS ECUMENICAL BEST

Since becoming pastor of St. Joseph Church, I've allowed a small Lutheran Church in our area to have a large Lutheran wedding here. Several years ago, I gave permission to our assistant organist, Harold McManus to have his father's funeral here so that Harold could play the organ here for his dad's funeral. He and his dad are Southern Baptists and Harold senior, who died, was a Baptist minister.

While I was away on vacation Harold's father died and his funeral was here at St. Joseph Church this past Sunday afternoon. It was a Baptist funeral with the pastor of Vineville Baptist Church officiating.

The following is the obituary:

Dr. Harold L. McManus, Sr.

September 27, 1919 - July 24, 2012

Macon, GA- Dr. Harold L. McManus, Sr., 92, of 5300 Zebulon Road, died Tuesday, July 24, 2012. Services will be held on Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 2:00PM at St. Joseph Catholic Church with Dr. Gary Hadden officiating. Burial will be in Marie Baptist Church Cemetery, Dublin, Georgia. The family will greet friends on Saturday from 4:00PM until 6:00PM at Hart's Mortuary, Cherry Street. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to a charity of the donor's choice .

Dr. McManus, son of the late Burch and Lizzie McManus, was born 27 September 1919 in Sanford, North Carolina. He was predeceased by his loving wife, Louise, in 1989, and by four brothers and two sisters.

Dr. McManus attended Wake Forest College, Wake Forest, North Carolina (AB, 1941), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (ThM, 1944) and Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut (STM, 1948; PhD, 1953).
Dr. McManus served as a chaplain in the United States Navy in World War II, subsequently joining the Naval Reserves and retiring with the rank of Captain. He held the Roberts Chair of Church History in the Christianity Department of Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, where he taught from 1949 until 1985. Dr. McManus was honored twice as the dedicatee of the Cauldron, Mercer University's yearbook, in 1957 and 1962.

Dr. McManus pastored rural churches in Middle Georgia: Marie Baptist Church, near Dublin, 1953-1957; Elam Baptist Church, near Gray, 1958-1965 and encouraged both to become full-time ministries. He taught several summers at Naval Chaplains School, Newport, Rhode Island, in the 1960s, as well as other military bases.

Dr. McManus became one of the first non-Catholics to preach from the pulpit during Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Macon, in the 1960s. He went as a volunteer with a group of fellow Baptists to teach conversational English to Chinese students in China at Guangxi University in the summers of 1998-2000.

Dr. McManus served as associate teacher of the Garland Taylor Bible Class of Vineville Baptist Church, Macon, 1993-2006. He authored several series of Adult Sunday School Lessons for the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1970s and 1980s. He was pleased and proud to be a member of the Macon Palaver Club for forty years.

Dr. McManus is survived by his children, Harold Lynn McManus, Jr., Kermit Neal McManus (Paula) and Marcia Louise McManus; grandchildren, Tomme Kyle and Casey Lynn.

Hart's Mortuary and Crematory, Cherry Street, has charge of arrangements.

THE HEAVY GRAVITATIONAL PULL ON ME AS IT CONCERNS THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM'S PRESSURE ON THE ORDINARY FORM'S MASS

Yes, while on vacation I celebrated Mass at my former parish in Augusta, Georgia, the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, established on the same land in 1810! The new Church was begun in 1857 and completed in 1863, during the height of the Civil War or the War Between the States depending on where you live. At the time, it was the only Catholic Church in Augusta up until about the 1870's when Sacred Heart Church was built six blocks away. It was merged back into Most Holy Trinity in 1970 and the building sold in 1986 to become a secular culture/reception hall, the "Great Hall" of the Sacred Heart Cultural Center as it is now called.

But I digress. On both weekends I was tempted to no end to introduce myself (or reintroduce myself) to those who know me, or don't recognize me anymore and to those who are new since I departed on June 30, 2004.

In the past and to a certain extent today when I feel there is a need, after the liturgical greeting, I would indicate a few things and would have had no problem telling people who I was and that it is great to be back, etc. on and on, blah, blah, blah.

But the gravitation pull of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass has become so great on me, this is how I began the Mass the last two Sundays at Most Holy Trinity (these were different Mass times):

Fr. McDonald: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.

Fr. McDonald: The Lord be with you.
Response: And with your Spirit. (and by unanimous acclamation!)

Fr. McDonald: Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins so as to prepare ourselves to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries.

(pause for silence)

All: I confess...

Fr. McDonald: May almighty God have mercy....

Kyrie

Gloria

Collect

It was not until the homily that I introduce or reintroduced myself to everyone. Oh, the anticipation!

The only reason I did not do this self disclosure at the introduction of the Mass is because of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass where this would simply be impossible to do.

Could you imagine the priest after the singing of the the Official Introit, or better yet, before the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, turning to the congregation and saying,"Good morning folks, I'm your long lost former pastor. I was here from 1991 to 2004 when I was named pastor of St. Joseph Church in Macon. I'm so happy to be with you all again. I know, my hair is gotten gray and I'm a bit heavier now than I was. I hope you still recognize me though. Well, it's great to be here, so let us get back to the Mass!

Then I would turn and pray the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, or if I delayed it until after the chanting of the Introit, I would turn back to the altar for the Kyrie.

Wouldn't that disrupt the unity and flow of the Extraordinary Mass? No one would even think of doing such a thing at an EF Mass, but how often has the time after the Greeting of the OF Mass been turned into the most secular, narcissistic time for announcements, introductions, etc and ad nauseum?

The worst offenders are papal Masses, and Masses with hoards of concelebating bishops and priests. Supposedly the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar were eliminated so as to make the sprint from the Greeting to the Liturgy of the Word more quickly since the Liturgy of the Word is the "meat" of the first part of the Mass, not the long, tedious lead up to it in the EF Mass.

But then we substitute the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar with a lenghty explanation of the purpose of the Mass, who's who of the Mass and maybe a mini-sermon on the readings and anything else of secular interest sometimes lasting up to 10 minutes. The recent close of the Fortnight of Prayer in Washington had Cardinal Wurel asking everyone to be seated prior to the sign of the Cross for a 20 minute pep rally of introductions and self-congratulations.

Folks, the OF Mass does not indicate a time of bantering after the Greeting. The rubrics say to the priest to say the following only:

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins so as to prepare ourselves to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries.

Nothing else need be said and then the Penitential Act takes places using one of the too many options that are allowed.

POPE PIUS XII MUST HAVE BEEN POPE JOHN PAUL II'S INSPIRATION

Someone has sent me another link on Pope Pius XII. Believe it or not I remember watching Pope Pius XII funeral on television in Atlanta, Georgia in October of 1958. The television we watched it on was our family's first and it was purchased a few months earlier! I remember its delivery to our apartment.

Pope Pius XII was very savvy about the use of the new media in his day and very conscious of the symbol of his person. He was unlike any other pope in terms of his appeal to the masses.

This video in Italian has English subtitles, and the sub titles are in literal Italian not an equivalency English, which I hate, as you know: