GOD’S HEALING GRACE

 

Cardinal Burke@cardinalrlburke

Praised be Jesus Christ! Cardinal Burke’s family is pleased to announce that His Eminence has come off the ventilator and will leave the ICU today to return to his hospital room. https://guadalupeshrine.org/cardinalburkehealthnews2/ …

2h

 

BOMBSHELL! THE TRUTH ABOUT MARK THOMAS COMES TO LIGHT THROUGH HIS VOICE AND MY EARS!

 

Well! I received a telephone call from, just guess! MARK THOMAS! He uses that as an alias but lives in Texas and his real name initials are SO!

He wanted to clear Father MJK’s good name and veracity which he did. He is taking time away from his blog.

He apologizes for the confusion! He asks for prayers for a 19 year old family member just diagnosed with the Delta variant of Covid 19 and other members close to her.

Now if only UK priest would call me from Buckingham Palace to further clear Father MJK’s veracity.

A GREAT CATHOLIC OBITUARY

 Even in the Bible Belt, so many obituaries today indicate no church or faith affiliation and often there isn’t even a memorial service planned. So much for the corporal work of mercy of burying the dead.

Often obituaries are quite banal and written for the therapeutic needs of the writer.  But I saw this obituary this morning and was touched by the Catholic sentiment it contained. I doubt if Protestants or non-practicing Catholics would appreciate the implied gratitude for the day on which this person died, a wife and mother of five children:

ETERNAL REST GRANT UNTO HER O LORD….

**********
November 10, 1937 - August 15, 2021 

Bluffton, South Carolina - CMH of Bluffton, SC and formerly New York City, died last Sunday, August 15 on the Feast of the Assumption. She passed peacefully in her home, surrounded in her last days by family and close friends.

Catherine lived an extraordinary life. Born in 1937 to Irish-immigrant parents, she grew up in the Bronx, NY, where she loved swimming in the sea and school -- especially math. In 1959 she graduated from Good Counsel College College magna cum laude.  She was an active member of St. Gregory the Great parish and traveled to Rome with her church group to meet Pope Benedict XVI. 

Funeral mass will be held Saturday, August 21, at 10:30am at St. Gregory the Great church in Bluffton. 

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Gregory the Great Church.

THE PONTIFICAL SOLEMN SUNG FEAST AT THE CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL IN PHILADELPIA

 It was very gracious of the new Archbishop of Philadelphia to allow this to take place. But stop and think about what I just wrote, that the Archbishop allowed it as though this harms the faith of Catholics and then look at the Mass I posted below this one.

The young schola sounds exactly like our young schola at our Cathedral Basilica. I mean exactly! I kid you not.

Something smells rotten in Denmark, I mean, in the Vatican:

OH MY, AND THIS IS WHAT VATICAN II INTENDED IN THE MINDS OF SO MANY CLERGY AND LAITY AND I THINK THEY ARE RIGHT

Those who want to suppress the Traditional Latin Mass in favor of the post Vatican II Mass point out that the Vatican II Mass incorporates the new theology of post Vatican II ecclesiology where the laity are completely involved in the active and conscious participation in the Mass, where the horizontal relationship with each other is paramount and stifled reverence, passive participation and sacred silence are regarded as things of the past to be banned.  

For now, please view this Mass, what those who want to ban the EF Mass see as the future. 

Before the Mass begins, there is simply audio. It sounds like any secular pre-meeting gathering, doesn’t it.

These people, though, are believers, but their Catholicism has suffered syncretism with Protestant evangelicalism. It is kind of charismatic but not.  It is a hodgepodge of confused theologies both Protestant and Catholic. It is a different denomination, neo-Catholic/Protestant.

But then watch and listen…oh my!

THE CULTURE OF DEATH THAT HAS SEDDUCED OUR CATHOLIC PRESIDENT

 

I watched President Biden's address to the nation about the debacle that is happening in Afghanistan.  The human suffering and deaths that will take place in the coming weeks and months will be monstrous. 

In his address, the Commander in Chief stated that the buck stops with him and he takes responsibility for this debacle and a debacle it is. He has been roundly criticized worldwide and in a bipartisan way. His public ratings now at an all time low.

But he also shifted the blame to others and certainly others are to blame. Be that as it may, there could have been a more orderly way to withdraw and prevent the complete collapse of the country into Taliban hands and almost overnight. 

In his talk, there seem to be a callousness to life, the lives of those left behind that served the interests of the USA and will surely be hunted down and killed. 

But this is also from a Catholic president who is so rabidly pro-choice that he has no regard for the current infanticide going on in our country that includes the most gruesome terrorist type of killing of the unborn infant in the partial birth abortion process. 

His horrible immoral politics as it concerns life and death as well as human sexuality which is intimately connected with the Democrat Party is breathtaking and yet he considers himself a good practicing Catholic. Maybe in his mind, he is, but one has to wonder what is he thinking.

Is this more Ordinary Form Catholic nonsense? 

God have mercy on him.  

And this is from an Italian newspaper I'Espresso (google translation):

"In the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Joe Biden made the impression of someone who does not know what he is doing"

The failure of US intelligence, the lack of relations with allies on the ground. And the influence of China on that area and on other possible scenarios. Speak Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the geopolitical consulting firm Eurasia Group
 

by Federica Bianchi
August 17, 2021
 

Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the geopolitical consulting firm Eurasia Group and the media start-up Gzeroworld, observes with disbelief the terrible execution of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. A withdrawal that he has always considered inevitable.

“Everything has gone wrong. It was a catastrophic retreat. They thought it would take the Taliban two or three months to take over the country and it took two or three days. An incredible failure of American intelligence. Furthermore, the US did everything by itself, without asking the allies for anything and it was a real planning disaster. They did not prepare for the worst case scenario, which then came true. Because of this lack, many people have lost and will lose their lives. In terms of communication it went even worse, with Biden ruling out such a possibility just a month ago and making the impression of someone who doesn't know what he is doing ».

YOUR TYPICAL ORDINARY FORM PRACTICING CATHOLICS: HOW MANY KNOW THIS AND BELIEVE IT?

 

Catholic morality today is in a mess from clergy to laity. It has been in a mess with the “new moral theology” of the early to late 70’s epitomized by Fr. Charles Curran of Catholic University in Washington, DC and by others. 

What would happen in an ordinary form parish if a priest preached this one Sunday, obviously being somewhat delicate with some of the delicate mortal sins there are, in describing them in a public way? I feel the priest who wrote this article becomes a bit too pornographic in his description of sodomy. Is that necessary today? How would EF Catholics react to such a graphic description????

The modesty issues highlighted here appear to me to be somewhat puritanical or Jansenistic. Catholics from the Mediterranean area, not to mention the Orthodox, as well as those of us in coastal regions where beachwear at the beach is quite common and dress for Mass a bit more relaxed, would snicker!

What say thou?

15 Mortal Sins Catholics Are Missing in Their Confessions

Part I:  Why Do We Need Confession and What Is Mortal Sin?

Read it there! To hot to print here especially if apps are tracked!

I LOVE THIS! EXCEPT....

 A stunningly beautiful post Vatican II Church which I love except....

I want to improve it. The finishes are great. But, I don't like the projected sanctuary and I am not sure why there is an ambo and a podium. Can't tell where the priest's chair is, but it looks like it is behind the altar to the right of the tabernacle. I like how the tabernacle looks with the six candles.

Let's spend more money and improve it. Push the altar back to the tabernacle area and elevate it three steps. Add an altar railing. and then where the altar is now can be a stage for weddings and the like to include RCIA ceremonies. 

Just like the 1970 Roman Missal, improvements are needed even in a spectacularly beautiful new church. What to do? What to do? Oh, what are we to do?

FATHER MARTIN FOX HAS A POINT ABOUT TINKERING WITH THE 1970 MISSAL OR AT LEAST WANTING TO DO SO

This is a comment Fr. Fox made on another post:

Fr Martin Fox said...

I will point out, yet again, that most people do not like the Missal of 1970, especially those who claim to be it's ardent supporters. Witness how many self-described "Vatican II" priests (note: I am a Vatican II priest, but they would shudder at the thought, as well as my cassock) cannot abide the Mass of Paul VI as it is, but rather must tinker, adapt, adjust, omit and re-arrange? The prayers aren't right, so they have to be re-arranged; the Gloria cannot stand alone, they must overlay it with a sprinkling rite. The proper antiphons prompt a reaction akin to garlic for a vampire. Using Latin texts for the ordinary parts, as called for by (a) Vatican II, (b) Pope St. Paul VI, (c) Pope St. John Paul II, (d) the U.S. bishops? UNTHINKABLE! Instead, let's "improve" the 1970 Missal with processions of athletic trophies arranged before that table up there -- what's that for? (i.e., the altar of sacrifice), let's take the tablecloth and candles off the table and have the kids dress it at a certain point, and let's have the sign of peace be "improved" by handing out roses or whatever... Oh, and let's have people stand around that table, that'll really make it work better, too...

There aren't many who actually like the 1970 Missal as it is. Oh, some exist, but not many.

My Comments:

Father Fox is right but it also occurs on the right. When I look at the 1970 Missal, I try to see how it could resemble the older Missal better. Let's have ad orientem, let's kneel for Holy Communion, let's chant.

But the greatest problem with the Ordinary Form is that so many of those who are faithful to it don't really believe what the Church teaches about the Real Presence or the purpose of the Mass as a glorified experience of the One Sacrifice of Christ in an "unbloody way."

Why is that? No one seems to want to connect the dots.....

And this tinkering also as to do with sanctuaries. Take a look at this:

This look is so common today for Catholic sanctuaries. Yet it is blah. It looks like a stage. And even the decorator thought it needs help with a statue of Mary stuck to the side and an image of the Divine Mercy stuck further back. 

 

I look at it and say, what if we added an altar railing, the altar is pushed back and elevated three steps and the priest's chair is to the side and there is the Benedictine altar arrangement. 

It lacks so much as does the 1970 Missal. 

And no one seems to care but bloggers.......

MASS OF THE AGES, EPISODE 1. RCG BROUGHT THIS TO MY ATTENTION

 

Of course not, and I love the answer that is given in this article and press title for full article:

Here are some good sound-bytes:

Is Ecumenism a Heresy?

Fr. Brian Harrison O.S. • 1/1/2009

Vying with the Declaration on Religious Liberty for the honor (or disgrace, depending on one’s theological outlook) of being the Second Vatican Council’s most doctrinally innovative document is its Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio (UR). Those at both traditionalist and liberal ends of the Catholic spectrum have seen this Decree (with sentiments of glowering gloom and gloating glee respectively) as representing a significant departure from traditional doctrine. The latter, of course, emphasized Catholicism as the one true religion, to which separated Christians will simply have to return if ever unity is to be restored. In this short article I shall limit myself to a comparison between UR and the pre-conciliar papal document most frequently cited as being incompatible with it, Pope Pius XI’s 1928 encyclical on fostering true religious unity, Mortalium Animos (On Religious Unity). This encyclical set out the Catholic Church’s position regarding the fledgling movement for religious unity which had been gathering steam in liberal Protestant circles since the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

To compare these two magisterial documents, we first need to recall the distinction between a reversal of official Church policy, discipline or pastoral strategy, and a contradiction of doctrine. The former type of change has often taken place in the course of Church history, in response to changing circumstances. And in this practical, disciplinary respect, a comparison between MA and UR reveals an undeniable and very marked change of direction—indeed, practically a U-turn. Pius XI flatly forbade any Catholic participation in interchurch or inter-religious meetings and activities motivated by the desire for restoring Christian unity. Vatican II, on the other hand, authorizes and positively encourages Catholic participation in such activities (within certain limits). The modern Church has thus made a prudential judgment that the risks and dangers of indifferentism and confusion about the faith occasioned by such activities—perils strongly emphasized by Pius XI—are outweighed by the great good to be hoped for as the long-term result of ecumenism: gradual, better mutual understanding, leading to that unity which Christ willed for all who profess to be his disciples.

At the more fundamental level of doctrine, however, the short answer to the charge of contradiction between MA and UR is that what Pius XI condemned is by no means the same thing that Vatican II affirms. What, exactly, did Pope Pius condemn as false doctrine? Basically, the liberal Protestant theology that dominated ecumenical initiatives in the early 20th century. More specifically, this theology embodied—explicitly or at least implicitly—several specific theses censured by Pius XI.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS?

 

NOTHING, EXCEPT: 

1. Sloppiness and casualness—go to your average ordinary form Mass and you will find priests in wrinkled albs, polyester chasubles and altar servers who are clueless. 

2. Music can be dismal and a throwback to the Saint Louis Jesuits (most no longer active Jesuits or clergy) Ray Carey and Kumbaya. 

3. There is no sense of reverence in the congregation before Mass, during and after. The dress of the laity is a cut above what one might find at a Banana’s baseball game in Savannah. 

4. There is no consistency of the quality of the manner in which the Mass is celebrated not only from diocese to diocese, parish to parish, but from Mass to Mass in the same parish and from priest to priest. 

5. The sanctuary is cluttered, flowers and plants hide the ambo and altar and the altar looks like a casket covered in a pall that is to small for the casket. 

But apart from that, the real presence is experienced ex-opere-operato. Which means in English: We have hit rock bottom.

ALTHOUGH I DOUBT THAT CARDINAL SARAH WILL BE ELECTED POPE, BUT WHO KNOWS, HE IS CERTAINLY SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE DEBATE OF THE CARDINALS IN THE CONCLAVE ABOUT WHICH NEW POPE THEY ARE TO ELECT

As everyone who reads my blog knows, I think I am clairvoyant! I posted the post below this one before I had read Cardinal Sarah’s article carried by the National Catholic Register.

In this article, Cardinal Sarah nails what the cardinals in the next conclave have to do, either elect a pope who will abrogate Pope Francis’ papacy of rupture, incoherence and confusion or elect a new pope in line with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI coherent vision for the Church based upon theological unity of logic. 

It is that simple and Cardinal Sarah is right on, not confused, incoherent or all over the place in his vision for the Church.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in Pope Emeritus Benedict’s compound and in the next conclave. 

Here’s is a money byte:

At a time when some theologians are seeking to reopen the liturgy wars by pitting the missal revised by the Council of Trent against the one in use since 1970, it is urgent to recall this. If the Church is not capable of preserving the peaceful continuity of her link with Christ, she will be unable to offer the world “the sacred which unites souls,” according to the words of Goethe.

Beyond the quarrel over rites, the credibility of the Church is at stake. If she affirms the continuity between what is commonly called the Mass of St. Pius V and the Mass of Paul VI, then the Church must be able to organize their peaceful cohabitation and their mutual enrichment. If one were to radically exclude one in favor of the other, if one were to declare them irreconcilable, one would implicitly recognize a rupture and a change of orientation. But then the Church could no longer offer the world that sacred continuity, which alone can give her peace. By keeping alive a liturgical war within herself, the Church loses her credibility and becomes deaf to the call of men. Liturgical peace is the sign of the peace that the Church can bring to the world.

Press the title for the Register’s article:

On the Credibility of the Catholic Church

COMMENTARY: Throughout two millennia, the Church has already played this role of guardian and ferryman of civilization. But does it still have the means, and the will, today?

POPE FRANCIS AND THE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT OF RUPTURE IN THE CHURCH UNDERMINES BOTH VATICAN II AND PAPAL AUTHORITY

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too..”—Pope Benedict XVI

Although not a papal magisterial statement, when Pope Francis contradicted and abrogated the papacy of Pope Benedict and by extension also that of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Francis undetermined not only the Second Vatican Council but also papal authority thus exacerbating the already huge virtual schism in the Catholic Church created by those who promote Vatican II as a rupture with what preceded it rather than in continuity with it. 

I consider myself a papist and an orthodox Catholic. What Pope Benedict wanted to do and he made it quite clear in his Christmas talk to cardinals shortly after his election, was to interpret Vatican II in continuity with what preceded this council. He saw this as the way forward for the Church in crisis because of misinterpretations of Vatican II as though a new Church was created.

In his attempt to reconcile the SSPX with the Church (which, when you think about it, is a part of this continuity meme) Pope Benedict even went so far as to say that there are some “theologies” of Vatican II that do not rise to the level of a doctrine let alone a dogma. The two sticking points for the SSPX are the documents on religious liberty and the one on ecumenism, interfaith dialogue and dialogue with unbelievers and the world. 

These can be consider as the theology of limbo for unbaptized babies. Take it or leave it, but it isn’t doctrine or dogma, merely a “theology.” 

In canceling Pope Benedict’s method of interpreting Vatican II which allows for the continuation of the pre-Vatican II Mass and a less dogmatic interpretation of Vatican II, Pope Francis has made Pope Benedict’s point in an unwittingly brilliant way. 

Thus we have a line drawn in the sand about papal authority and the authority of ecumenical councils that are not dogmatic but are promoted as such. 

I am with Pope Benedict and others are with Pope Francis. Is this a Peter and Paul moment? Or is it a schism?

This is a good article: Press the title:

 

Pope Francis’ motu proprio on the usus antiquior defeats its own stated purposes

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman August 12, 2021 36

Pope Francis new motu proprio on the traditional liturgy of the Roman Rite is, as so many commentators have already observed, a shockingly draconian exercise of papal authority, one that strikes at the heart of [...]

PERHAPS A RETURN TO GREGORIAN CHANT IS THE SOLUTION

 From the Deacon’s Bench:

COMPOSER OF ‘PESCADOR DE HOMBRES’ ACCUSED OF ABUSE

August 13th, 2021|Categories: Sex abuse crisis|Tags: Sex Abuse Crisis

Details:  The Marist Congregation in Spain has confirmed it has received credible accusations of the abuse of minors against Fr.

Read More

WOW, BUT ARE WE BEING LED BACK TO THE AFTER PICTURE RATHER THEN MORE AFTER AFTERS?

 Before:

After:

After, after:

The after (middle photo) is a symbol of how confused the liturgical movement was that would have encouraged, allowed and mandated such an ugly disfigurement of a Catholic Church. It shows how incoherent, confused and just plain distasteful the liturgical theology was that informed the first renovation. 

Please note the clutter, the choir crammed to the side and all the other stuff simply out of place. 

And then there are those who ask, well, there are other reasons too that has led to only 12 % of Catholics who attend Mass. 

The after after is splendid but I fear that those who are longing for the late 60’s and a Church that has canceled both Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict Emeritus XVI may well desire an after, after, after as incoherent as the after.

THE RANTINGS AND RAVINGS OF AN ARCHBISHOP: SHOULDN'T THE POPE SILENCE HIM?

Popes have silenced theologians before. Pope John Paul certainly did. Think of Fr. Charles Curran who had his "title" of theologian stripped from him.

Bishops have been removed from their dioceses. Other punitive measures have taken place to silence bishops. 

I know; I know; Archbishop Vigano has nuggets of truth, but he comes off to me as a raving lunatic, shooting from the hip and accusing all kinds of people of this, that and the other. I am sorry, but there has to be something seriously wrong with him. Or is it me; or is it I?

Abp. Viganò Invites Bishops and Priests to Fast, Recite Leo XIII’s Exorcism Prayer on Vigil of the Assumption

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano

August 12, 2021

INVITATION
TO BISHOPS AND PRIESTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
TO A DAY OF FASTING
AND THE RECITATION OF THE EXORCISM OF LEO XIII
ON THE VIGIL OF
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY INTO HEAVEN

In this moment of very serious spiritual and material crisis, in which the public Authorities support the plans of the New World Order and the Shepherds are silent accomplices in the face of the destruction of society and of the Church of Christ herself, it is our sacred duty to unite ourselves to the spiritual battle, aligning ourselves without hesitation under the banners of Christ our King and Mary our Queen.

The Lord has given to Bishops and Priests the power to cast out demons in His Name. Already on Holy Saturday of 2020 many of them welcomed my appeal [see here — CFN Ed.] with generosity and a supernatural spirit. Today I intend to renew this appeal. I ask, therefore, my venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood to dedicate the Vigil of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to prayer and fasting, and to reciting the Exorcismus in Satanam et angelos apostaticos of Leo XIII (Rituale Romanum, Tit. XII, Caput III), at the hour of 12 noon in Rome. This sacramental will be placed under the mantle of the most fearful Adversary of the infernal powers, so that the choral prayer of the Ministers of God will remove from the Church and the world the snares of the Enemy of mankind which today threaten society, families, individuals, and in a particular way the faithful of Christ.

The secularized world, and along with it not a few Shepherds, will be able to mock this appeal and the Exorcism itself, considering it the legacy of a past to be cancelled along with the Faith of our fathers. But we know well that, although we are unworthy sinners, a power has been given to us by Our Lord which terrorizes the Gates of Hell and its servants.

In the silence and fasting which prepares us for the Feast of the Assumption of the Queen of Heaven, let us invoke the Most Holy Virgin, terrible as an army set in battle array [Cant. 6:9], and Saint Michael the Archangel, the Patron of the Holy Church and Prince of the Heavenly Hosts.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

12 August 2021
Sanctae Clarae Virginis

 

ON THIS FEAST OF SAINT FRANCES DE CHANTEL, CATHOLIC TRIVIA

The Chantels are a pop music group and were the second African-American girl group to enjoy nationwide success in the United States, preceded by The Bobbettes. The group was established in the early 1950s by students attending St. Anthony of Padua School in The Bronx. The original five members consisted of Arlene Smith (lead) (October 5, 1941), Sonia Goring Wilson (born Millicent Goring) (1940), Renée Minus White (1943), Jackie Landry Jackson (May 22, 1941 – December 23, 1997) and Lois Harris (1940).  

 

They derived their name from that of school St. Frances de Chantal.  

 

THANK YOU DR. MASSISMO! YOU MAKE IT CLEAR! THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS IN SCHISM WITH HERSELF!

 

I like the Church as she was before Vatican II, warts and all!

I like the Catholic Church of Pope St. Paul VI and her new and improved status!

I like the Church of Pope St. John Paul II and the excitement His Holiness brought to the Church, her young and the restoration of the great discipline of the Church.!

I like Pope Benedict’s hermeneutic of continuity and restoration of all the good things tossed after Vatican II!

I like the pre-Vatican II Mass and liturgical books!

I like the post-Vatican II Mass and liturgical books!

I like conservative Catholicism in the post-Vatican II age!

I like progressive Catholicism espoused by Pope Francis the most humble pope in the history of the Church who always dialogues with those he sends to the periphery answering all their questions and concerns!

I like the German Church and how it is seeking the success of the Episcopal Church by imitating its liberal agenda.

I like, I like, I like! CAN ANYONE SPELL SCHISM? AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, THERE ARE MORE PROBLEMS OF POLARIZATION CREATED BY THE MOST HUMBLE POPE IN HISTORY SINCE HIS HOLINESS ASSUMED THE PAPACY THAT FAITHFUL 3/03/13 EVENING IN ROME AND GOOD EVENING. IT WAS IN MY BONES WHEN I LOOKED INTO HIS EYES WHEN HE WALKED OUT ONTO THE LOGGIA, SOMETHING IS NOT GOOD HERE...

DOUTHAT’S CRITICISM OF POPE’S RESTRICTION OF LATIN MASS IS FASCINATING; IT’S ALSO AHISTORICAL AND HAS BEEN USED BEFORE

“In the divisions of the church, the pressure toward traditionalist and progressive extremes, both Latin Massgoers and German Protestantizers recognize the fact of Catholic decline. Both believe the other’s vision would break the church in order to save it. Both have weaknesses and very different sorts of strength. The outcome of their struggle is—as good Catholics know—somehow foreordained.”

Douthat may be right about the clashing narratives regarding the fact of AmericanCatholic decline. That Catholic world is in serious decline, despite the pathetic efforts of the restorationists to pretend we’re still in the 1950s, and despite the wishful thinking of old-guard American Catholic liberals who haven’t yet figured out why their children and students don’t share their concern for the church.

READ THE REST THERE!

OKAY! LET’S DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND; A PRIEST SHOULD NOT AIR THE DIRTY LAUNDRY OF ANOTHER CATHOLIC NO MATTER HOW NOTORIOUS THE CATHOLIC IS

 As a priest, I am committed to the seal of Confession. I am prepared to hear the most lurid details of people’s sinful and sometimes corrupt lives. 

I like how  Father Raymond J. de Souza writes and often his commentaries are right on. And yes his commentary of Gov. Andrew Cuomo is right on, but it should not be written by a Catholic priest whose primary ministry is to hear confessions and reconcile sinners to God, not be a tabloid broadcasting the sins of a Catholic who might need to go to the same priest for confession. 

Has Father de Souza jumped the shark on this one? Do you want to read your priest’s commentary on other Catholics and their peccadilloes? Would you feel you could be next in the line of commentary?

Andrew Cuomo Sacrificed His Catholic Faith for Political Power

COMMENTARY: He will not be greatly missed, but his significance should not be overlooked.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo listens as Alan Steel, president and CEO of the New York Convention Center Operating Corporation, speaks during a press conference at the Javits Center in Manhattan on May 11, 2021 in New York City. (photo: Michael M. Santiago / Getty)

Father Raymond J. de Souza 
August 11, 2021

LET THE GOSSIP BEGIN! WAS THIS THEATER? OR WHAT? I ASK; YOU ANSWER, BUT A POPE LIKE NO OTHER…

 An update indicates the caller was the Sostituto, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra which underscores the mammoth clout and complete access of the Vatican’s de facto “chief of staff”. Of course he would have known the pope was in a public audience. Why would he call and expect the Holy Father to take the call which His Holiness did. How peculiar, how odd, and is this more “court-intrigue” and a hireling making a narcissistic  point about how important he is?

Very odd. What could be so important? Something like Pope Emeritus taking back his renunciation? 

John Allen of Crux reported this on August 24, 2019:

This comes to mind in light of a recent controversy surrounding Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the “substitute,” or number three official, in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. He was appointed to that role by Pope Francis last year, and it’s a key one – the substitute, who’s responsible for the Vatican’s daily workflow, is the only person, including the Cardinal Secretary of State, who can simply walk in on the pope unannounced.

When Peña Parra was appointed a year ago, the Italian newsmagazine L’Espresso published a letter suggesting negative reports about him as a seminarian in Venezuela, but they mostly concerned his sexual orientation and didn’t clearly suggest abuse.

Yet in early July, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal ambassador in the U.S. who accused Francis of covering up charges against ex-cardinal and ex-priest Theodore McCarrick – today, by the way, marks the one-year anniversary of that bombshell – gave yet another clandestine interview in which he alleged there’s a “terrifying” dossier in the Vatican, containing reports that Peña Parra sexually abused two minor seminarians in Venezuela and that he was also involved in two suspicious deaths.

READ THE REST AT CRUX

Pope Francis Speaks on Phone at End of General Audience

According to people present in the hall, the Pope spoke on the phone for around two minutes, then gestured to the crowd that he would return soon and left the room.

Pope Francis spoke on the phone at the end of his general audience Aug. 11, 2021. (photo: Daniel Ibanez/CNA / EWTN)

Hannah Brockhaus/CNAVaticanAugust 11, 2021

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis made an unknown phone call at the end of his weekly general audience on Wednesday.

A livestream video of the Aug. 11 audience in the Vatican’s Pope Paul VI Hall showed the pope giving his apostolic blessing, then being approached by one of his assistants. The two could be seen speaking together for a moment before Pope Francis was handed a cellphone which he put to his ear.

According to people present in the hall, the Pope spoke on the phone for around two minutes, then gestured to the crowd that he would return soon and left the room. He came back shortly afterward to greet the people gathered to see him.

No other information is currently known about the mysterious phone call.

The moment took place at the end of Pope Francis’ Wednesday general audience, after the Our Father was prayed in Latin.

The papal audiences were paused during July for a summer break, but have resumed this month.

A CRITIQUE; A CORRECTION AND ALSO KUDOS

One of the highest ranking laymen at the Vatican was interviewed by CRUX. Some of it makes you scratch your head but some of it is quite good. And thus we have the Francis’ papacy. Gustavo Guerra López, recently appointed by Pope Francis to a key role in the Vatican.

Guerra López will soon take up his role as the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and could potentially help shape the continental Church for years to come.

He also speaks about clericalism but warns about clericalizing the laity, yet there are hints of laityism in some of his snarky remarks, like referring the Curial officials in the Vatican who happen to be ordained as “cassocks.” How condescending is that!

You can read it HERE.

But here is what I want to focus upon:

…The second is showing that the Latin American Church, providentially through Pope Francis, and the Latin American magisterium, has a contribution to make to the Universal Church. We are no longer a reflection of the European Church, but we are a source that can help Europe and the United States to be reborn.

…I say this because in Europe there may be great intellectuals and thick books of dogmatic theology. But in many places and environments there is a pastoral collapse. In Latin America perhaps there is poverty, perhaps there is no sophisticated pastoral organization, but we have popular religiosity, we still have families and communities with faith, we have 12 million people visiting the Virgin of Guadalupe every December 12 in Mexico City, and similar demonstrations in every Marian sanctuary. In all Latin America we see that there is still a reserve of spiritual and cultural energy that can nourish a new missionary effort in countries that have lost the strong reference, for example, to popular religiosity and to a life of faith. It’s perhaps less enlightened, but more profound from the point of view of the personal encounter with the living person of Jesus.

My first comment is most important:

With Catholicism it isn’t either/or but both/and! He talks about Europe’s great intellectuals and thick dogmatic books but then a pastoral collapse. Is there a cause and effect or can it be traced to the chaos in the Church since Vatican II, the loss of Catholic identity on an institutional level, the refashioning of the liturgy and other liturgical books and outlawing what previously worked?  There is a multi-faceted cause and effect to the decline and fall of Catholicism in Europe. 

My second criticism of the good laymen is that he thinks the Latin American Church can help Europe and the United States be reborn. While it might be true of Europe, has he even been to the United States? The USA is probably the most religious country in the world and this includes all religions not just Catholicism. Does he not know that religious evangelicals have gone to Latin America and taken scores of Catholics away from the true Church and given them a popular religion which needs no priests and that this religion is spreading like wildlife throughout Latin America? 

And what about the political chaos in Latin America? Is that a role-model for this papacy and the future of the Church in Europe and the United States?

And now for the kudos:

He speaks of popular piety in Latin America, especially Marian devotion and pilgrimages to Marian shrines You don’t need the clergy for popular devotions, save Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. 

Vatican II’s spirit in the immediate aftermath of Vatican II almost single handedly destroyed the tradition of popular devotions in the USA and over night between 1965 to ‘70. Certainly, since Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict, there has been a recovery of some popular devotions, especially the Holy Rosary and Marian piety. 

But again, what was it about the pre-Vatican II Church where Masses were packed and popular devotions flourished? It was not either/or but both/and back then. 

Keep in mind the Mass was in Latin and popular devotions mostly in the vernacular and more creative and free flowing. It was a good mix and complimentary to each. 

But yes, Latin American popular devotions are a good thing and a role model for the entire Church. And certainly Pope Francis has led the way in the recovery of these. 

Has it trickled down to your parish?

JUST WHAT DOES POPE FRANCIS MEAN????

In his infamous letter to the bishops of the world suppressing the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, it appears that the pope may have thrown out a scrap to traditionalists disgruntled over the banal and irrervent way the Ordinary Form of the Mass is celebrated in the majority of parishes in the world.

This is what His Holiness wrote (and I have read no commentary about it):

  At the same time, I ask you to be vigilant in ensuring that every liturgy be celebrated with decorum and fidelity to the liturgical books promulgated after Vatican Council II, without the eccentricities that can easily degenerate into abuses. Seminarians and new priests should be formed in the faithful observance of the prescriptions of the Missal and liturgical books, in which is reflected the liturgical reform willed by Vatican Council II.

What does that mean? And why single out younger priests to be formed in the faithful observance of the prescriptions of the (newer) Missal and liturgical books? Aren't older priests the ones more likely to free-lance the new liturgy, ad lib and do all kinds of eccentricities for the sake of relevancy and being a showman? 

So, what do you think the pope has in mind and how should local bishops interpret it in terms of improving the new Mass?????????????????

I ask and you muse! 

IF IT WAS THE LITURGICAL REFORM OR NOT OR OTHER SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS, DO WE BLAME THE “NEW” MASS FOR THE FREE FALL IN ACTUAL PARTICIPATION IN THE NEW MASS?

 A schizophrenic Church

One has to live in la la land not to think the changes in the Church since Vatican II have for the most part been an unmitigated disaster. Sure, there are some bright spots, but overall there has only been an extended self-inflicted wintertime in the Church not the much touted and expected new springtime for the Church that Vatican II’s implementation was to bring forth. 

Of course all this talk about a new springtime by pre-Vatican II popes and bishops is truly the triumphalism of the pre-Vatican II mentality. And it is related to the pre-Vatican II clericalism and authoritarianism which implemented a particular vision of Vatican II in the most pre-Vatican II way possible. We see this same mentality operative in Pope Francis’ recent Motu Proprio once again trying to suppress the old pre-Vatican II Mass which has become a part of the fabric of many colored threads of the post-Vatican II Church thanks to Pope Benedict.

Apart from the decline to about 10% to 25% of Catholics in this country who actually attend Mass from a high of 90% prior to Vatican II and making unsubstantiated conclusions that this happened because the Mass changed, thus blaming Vatican II or its poor and false implementation, just what do the 10% to 25% of Catholics who are faithful to Sunday Mass in the normative post-Vatican II form believe about Catholic dogma and doctrine concerning the Mass and the Church in general?

1. We know the majority DO NOT believe or think that the consecrated Host is the the Real Sacramental Presence of the Risen Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. They think it is a symbol of Jesus. Of course an atheist would think that too. There is no Catholic Faith in thinking that Holy Communion is a symbol of Christ. 

2. Most believe that women should be ordained deacons, priests and bishops despite the fact that the perennial ordinary Magisterium of the Church teaches that the Church and/or the pope alone have no authority to change the dogma of Holy Orders.

3. Most believe in gender ideology and that people of whatever gender and not just in the binary sense should get married in the Church and polygamy is certainly not to be disdained. 

4. Most believe that Catholicism is but one truth in the world of religion and that salvation can come through other religions or non at all.

I think we can blame this heterodoxy on the post-Vatican II Church. Who else deserves the blame?