It’s confirmed: Never give up! Never surrender!

At RenewAmerica, Matt C. Abbot posted about an encouraging event: confirmations conferred in the Extraordinary Form.  The account is a good read.  It included the following with my emphases and comments:

[…]

I discovered the Latin Mass in my early adulthood and attended occasionally. Some years ago, my husband finally agreed to try to attend. He did not feel like he could follow the Mass at first, [at first… but that doesn’t last very long] and felt lost. We also discovered the Una Voce group at our parish, which was one state over, but only 30 minutes from our home.

During some of our meetings I found out about the extraordinary form (EF) Confirmation, which was being held at select parishes around the country. [For example HERE] One mother was actively seeking to get EF Confirmation for her son at our parish but had little success, although the pastor, a canon lawyer, seemed very interested. Perhaps it was not the right time, but he said he would look into it.

Several years passed with no real progress, or so we thought. I started to ask our pastor as well. We got the same answer: that he was looking into it, and that he would be interested. Finally, my friend said: ‘We should get a man to ask!’ So my husband did, and lo and behold, we got the affirmative – our pastor would seek permission from Archbishop Kurtz of Louisville. I was almost sure the archbishop would say no. Sometime later, I asked our priest again, and he said that the archbishop wanted to do it and was excited about the idea! We were thrilled! [¡Hagan lío!]

[…]

The moral of the story is: persevere.  You need to keep advancing the ball.

Never give up!  Never surrender!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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9 Comments

  1. Henry Edwards says:

    Archbishop Kurtz was warmly supportive of the traditional Latin Mass when he was Bishop of Knoxville (TN). He readily approved an indult for it several years before Summorum Pontificum, and in 2006 accepted our first invitation to attend a TLM in choro.

  2. Marion Ancilla Mariae says:

    “Finally, my friend said: ‘We should get a man to ask!’ So my husband did, and lo and behold, we got the affirmative . . .”

    It’s great news that the author was able to arrange a Confirmation ceremony in the EF at her own parish.

    How very sad, however, that a woman receives from her pastor only noncommittal answers to her inquiries; when she grows tired of getting the brush-off from him, she asks her husband to pursue the same inquiries, and the husband receives a solid answer.

    And even sadder, that the author’s friend was familiar enough with this pattern, that she was able to predict that the route to a successful outcome in her friend’s endeavor, was to suggest that *a man* do the asking.

    This is very sad, and very troubling.

  3. Pearl says:

    Marion Ancilla Mariae:

    “The moral of the story is: persevere. You need to keep advancing the ball.”

    No, the moral of the story is “Get a man to ask.” From the story, it seems it would have happened a lot sooner if a man had asked. So sad, but it is still reality.

  4. JesusFreak84 says:

    If the priest and parish are where I believe them to be, there was another issue at play. (I was still living down there when the question of EF Confirmations was first breached.) A LOT of the parishioners of the TLM are from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, a different See. Even if no Canonical issues exist in confirming people from that See in Louisville, the political issues weren’t nothing =-\

  5. Felicia says:

    I want to know how that woman was able to get her husband interested in the EF Mass, since his initial experience was not good (“…he felt he could not follow the Mass at first, and felt lost.”) How did she get him to stick out that initial period? We have an FSSP parish in town, and I tried bringing my husband there. We went once, but he won’t go back. We go to a very decent OF parish about which I have no complaints, but the EF would certainly be nice….

  6. sibnao says:

    Yes, I also thought that the real moral was “get a man to ask.” Although this is abundantly true (in my life) when dealing with car mechanics, repair guys, and grade-school principals, I’ve not seen this dynamic at work in parishes. But then I’ve not been trying to get an EF Mass established.

    When a man gets to be called “Father,” he has to know how to deal with women. The “father” who doesn’t know how to deal with women, or who takes men more seriously, is going to make everybody’s life harder, especially his own. (A hint: women power community life. They are joiners and doers. Lots of talking is a non-negotiable part of how they do this.) Seminarians: Think about whether you can spend much of your non-sacramental life working closely with women. If the idea makes you want to take a long nap or punch something, do not become a parish priest.

    Having said this, I am very happy to see the willingness of these bishops to confer Confirmation in the EF. We live in one such diocese, and we are so grateful.

  7. Marion Ancilla Mariae says:

    Here’s an example of a woman who wouldn’t be brushed off easily by anyone: Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, formerly the lady of Grantleigh Manor, until her husband died, leaving many debts, and she had to “sell up” the old place. The youtube link is to the British sitcom from the 1980s, _To the Manor Born_.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0lz0PIsDo

    Mrs. fforbes-Hamilton’s secret for doing business with men: know your stuff, keep your questions and remarks short and to the point, and exude self-confidence. A tall order, I suppose, but it seems to work pretty well.

  8. I am to be a sponsor for a Confirmation in the EF on Pentecost Sunday. Perhaps I’ll send in a report! Pray for me!

  9. Semper Gumby says:

    To continue on the Never Give Up Never Surrender theme, a great 30-second YouTube video with English subtitles was sent to me by a buddy. As usual, the link isn’t copying here, please search: “Matsuoka Shuzo Never Give Up English.”

    Tim Allen highly recommends it.

    HERE

    [Japanese is a great language for exhortation!]

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