What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

A friend just phoned to tell me about a discussion on a "trad" forum. 

I went there and read for a while.

In this discussion some people were publicly bad mouthing priests who have been celebrating the TLM and denigrating their ministry.

They claim these priests not Catholic enough, not fully or really Catholic.  Not Catholic like they are.

Thus, they who have no authority in the Church, laymen who have no jurisdiction, no credentials other than that they are hobbyists of the older form of the Roman Rite (sincere as their devotion may be), they who have read some encyclicals of popes of yesteryear, some books by authors zealous for Tradition, they who have no authority other than their conviction that no one else can be right or as Catholic as they are, turn with a snarl and bite the consecrated hand that feeds them Christ’s Body and forgives their sins. 

And this about some priests who have probably already forgotten more about liturgy and theology than they will ever know.  Priests who have suffered a great deal in their years of ministry at the hands even of Church officials because of their traditional convictions.

I am at an annual gathering of priests right now.  We have among other things discussed what it is like to minister to people who then turn on you.  How to work with that, with them.

Most of the time we are willing to have you keep bashing us, try to ruin our reputations, running us down.

But it does take its toll.

I say, if you chose to stay on this path, woe to you who raise your hands against the Lord’s anointed.

In taking this negative approach with and about your priests, you will not obtain your objectives.

Don’t expect them to be all warm and open to your suggestions when you do nothing but get in their faces and run them down behind their backs.

Mark my words, folks. 

If any of you have imbibed of this attitude, what I am describing above… mark my words, you are on a spiritually perilous course. 

You are putting your souls in danger of hell and causing scandal to others. 

You could also wind up ruining everything for others who also have your aspirations, but not your lack of prudence.