Wherein a furious Fr. Z gives selfish, cruel jackasses a piece of his mind

In the wake of stories of bishops banning, or attempting to ban, Communion on the tongue for as long as Coronvirus threatens… how long with that be?… I wrote a few blog posts on the matter.

Today, I’ve looked around to see what’s up with the pages or tweets of some of the players in this drama.  In particular I was interested to see what Bp. Richard Stika of Knoxville was up to, since he makes rather extravagant use of Twitter.  HERE

Let me preface what follows with a clarification.  I think that Bp. Stika’s attempted ban of Communion on the tongue was wrong.  I don’t think he imposed this out of malice.  He is convinced that he is doing a good thing, something for the common good.  I just think he is wrong.

Furthermore, Bp. Stika has not shown hostility to the Traditional Latin Mass.  As a matter of fact, I believe that the number of TLMs in Diocese of Knoxville has grown on his watch.  I am told that he encouraged seminarians to learn the Traditional Mass.  There are other indicators that he is not hostile to traditional liturgy.   I don’t know if he has ever himself celebrated the TLM, a Pontifical Mass.  I hope so.  Just as priests learn a great deal about who they are as priests by using the Traditional Mass, so too – I believe – would bishops.   Even if that bishop used the TLM before his episcopal consecration, I suspect that using it as a bishop would be a whole new experience.  I hope I never have to find that out personally.

That said, I saw this on Bp. Stika’s tweeter feed:

Catholics follow these sites at their own risk. They don’t want to agree with the magisterium, the College of Bishops and the successor of St. Peter. They want the Church to agree with them. And for those who insulted today a very holy woman…….God sees.

— Bishop Rick Stika (@BishopStika) May 14, 2020

“Insulted a very holy woman”… ?!?

I looked at some other tweets.  I found this:

So because of the non-Catholic sites, Church Militant and Complicit Catholic, which I think are the same ilk, our switch board operator, a very holy woman who just lost her husband, was subjected by some minions of these awful sites, to cursing, rudeness and even a death threat,

— Bishop Rick Stika (@BishopStika) May 14, 2020

Mystery solved.

This bishop does not like Church Militant and Complicit Clergy at all. As a natter if fact, he awfulizes them rather often. (Yes, that’s real word.)  I wonder if that helps.

However, what winds me up is the fact that some nitwits out there are not only abusing the bishop with profoundly stupid tweets, but some have called the diocese and have verbally abused the woman who answers the phone.

Of all the stupid, sinful, asinine things to do!  And if this is coming from tradition-leaning Catholics who are frustrated with the ban of Communion on the tongue…

I am ashamed for you.

Look.  The bishop is a big boy and has probably developed the necessary rhinoceros hide for the role he has been given.  Hence, your abuse of him is less than pointless. He’s more than likely not much shaken by moronic and insulting messages.

Moreover, anyone who chooses to step out onto the sand of the arena (like Twitter) had better expect to take some hits.  You make your choice also to be a target.

But to abuse the woman who answers the phone and directs the calls…. ?  REALLY?

I am singularly ashamed for you.

I am embarrassed for you and what you have done.

That was selfish and cruel and you should apologize.

Again and again, I have made a plea in these electronic pages for “trads” to rise in charity, to be involved in your parishes, and to excel and to be the first in works of mercy.  I’ve begged you for years to do this for your own sake and for the sake of what we aspire to have: a holier and stronger Church, renewed through the recovery of our sacred liturgical tradition.

But some of you blockheads out there, usually under the cover of craven anonymity, give in to your reptilian brain stems and yammer like brute beasts.

It only takes a tiny percentage of you to ruin things for the rest of us.

How demoralizing.

Let it never be said again that any “trads” would do such a thing.  Leave that tactic to the other side if they choose.

Search your hearts and say you are sorry.  Tweet it or make a call and say you are sorry.

I will take on a penance in reparation for the offence you gave to Christ the High Priest and to Mary, Queen of the Clergy, Queen of Apostles.

I hope that Bp. Stika will not turn a cold face against the more traditional flock in the Diocese of Knoxville because of what some few cranks – probably not even in that diocese! – have done.

Finally, Bp. Stika is still wrong about Communion on the tongue.   I hope and pray that he reconsiders and changes that decision, not because of moronic abuse, but because it would be the right thing to do.

The combox is closed.