Go to Crisis and read or listen to “A Time For Anger”

Stop what you are doing.

Go to Crisis and read or listen to the brilliant offering by a young man named Clement Harrold.  HERE

A Time For Anger.

Then come back.  I look forward to your discussion here.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

  1. paxbenedict says:

    That is truly a brilliant and inspiring piece of writing. Might be an idea to print that off as an agenda to remind us what we need to be doing.

    ‘The situation is akin to a leper severing off his one healthy limb in the name of unifying his body.’ Exactly.

    Also, as inspirational as it is I also feel my mood lighter and that much more hopeful. As an adult convert with no access to the Latin Mass and in a very isolated area geographically things can become a bit lonely and somewhat black, if I’m not very careful. That young men like him still are being raised to speak truth to power is very encouraging. Deo gratias.

  2. JPManning says:

    The link didn’t work in my browser. Here it is if you had trouble.

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/a-time-for-anger

  3. Chrisc says:

    Today is a great day for saving Western Civilization.

  4. In re imposing money consequences: don’t just give money to the pastor, earmark it for particular purposes so none of it goes to the diocese or the USCCB in assessments.

  5. That is one of several good articles I’ve read so far. I want to underline a main point: the writer has not been attending the TLM. My mother has no use for the TLM either– but when I explained to her what all the fuss was about, you should have seen the faces she made, as she said, “Why would he do such a thing?” “Why?” And I have been mainly attending the TLM because it is reliably and consistently reverent, not because I have any hatred for the Novus Ordo.

    Similarly, Father Peter Stravinskas write a good article at Catholic World Report. He is amenable to both forms of Mass and offers both– so while many traditionalists would scoff at him, he is also appalled at the motu proprio. He’s the sort of person who needs to be seen as an ally, not as part of the problem.

    Those of you who want the TLM are going to need to put aside your differences with non-TLM attendees and make common cause with them. You’ll find that you have more allies than you expect, especially if the rhetoric is toned down a bit. One doesn’t need to be a raving liberal to see the harshness of the motu proprio. Perhaps you can get the job done without help, but it will be lots easier with help. As Father Z has often said, we have to unite the clans. As long as we are shooting arrows at one another, we’ll never make any progress.

    This really is about more than the TLM– in the end it’s about orthodoxy vs. heterodoxy. Those of us who are morally traditional need to get together with those who are liturgically traditional (and one can be both, of course) and start fighting together. Let’s channel the anger into productive combat against Satan and his allies.

  6. InFormationDiakonia says:

    I loved his cogent thought, his passion, and his righteous anger. He makes good points to do things beyond, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

    A thought would be for all those young, traditional-minded priests coming out of seminary to say “fine, you want me to do the Novus Ordo only? Okay, then I will do it in Latin, ad orientum, while wearing a fiddleback chasuble, maniple, and amice under my alb. Sure, I’ll do the readings and my homily in the vernacular but I may also consider doing them in Latin with translations in the pew. I’ll only use altar boys, no EMHCs, only instituted lectors. There, I’m doing Novus Ordo only…”

    An interesting thought too is that these 60’s and 70’s rejects who run the church today will be headed to their eternal reward soon. And these men coming out of seminary today will be tomorrow’s bishops…. I feel that tradition minded Catholics just need to bide their time.

  7. prayfatima says:

    A good article. Here’s my righteous anger. I’m having difficulty understanding Benedict’s role in all of this. What is he doing there in the Vatican that keeps him so occupied that he cannot communicate with the outside world? Crickets crickets!
    Father Z, here is an attempt from a lay person on how to save the church. Good bishops and priests should speak with Benedict and get some answers from him. What the heck is going on here? The church is a complete mess, doesn’t he care? Can’t he do something? He may still be pope and not Francis. Pope “Emeritus” Benedict??Seriously? Get some answers and maybe we will see that Francis has no papal authority at all. Maybe he is only bishop of Rome. Sounds crazy, I know. Can’t say I know exactly what I’m talking about but sometimes you just have to speak your mind. Benedict is probably the pope and Francis simply bishop of Rome. That would solve a lot. If I had the right connections I would be looking to speak with Benedict myself. Other people will have to do it. Find out if he is the leader of the church and not Francis.

  8. aflusche says:

    The crucible of hard times forms amazing saints. Let’s be saints!

  9. JT says:

    Pope Francis may have just “mainstreamed” or legitimatized traditional Catholics within the Church with his motu propio.

  10. Kerry says:

    “Bywater is up lads! We must be in it!!”

  11. Amateur Scholastic says:

    Great article. One thing I’d add is: learn your philosophy and your history. Understand that the will of a superior is not the same thing as the lawful command of a superior (the Jesuits have made everyone very confused in this regard), and the latter is the object of obedience. Understand that the Pope is not a Renaissance prince who can re-write the entirety of law and worship on a whim, but is bound by law, and that longstanding custom has the force of law (see St Thomas for this). This is in no way a denial of his universal ordinary jurisdiction or the awful majesty of his office; it’s just pointing out (with Vatican I) that “[t]he Holy Spirit was not given to the Roman Pontiffs so that they might disclose (patefacerent) new doctrine, but so that they might guard and set forth (exponerent) the Deposit of Faith handed down from the Apostles”.*

    And we can’t glibly proclaim that this isn’t about doctrine, but about liturgy. ‘Lex orandi, lex credendi’ isn’t just an observation about how your outward worship affects your inward beliefs (though it is that), but also points to the reality that inward thought and outward worship are two facets of the same thing. What you do, outwardly, with your body, and what you think, inwardly, with your mind, can’t ultimately be separated. Thanks to Descartes, modern people find this last point very hard to understand — even those who know about his errors tend to separate mind and body in practice, because that’s the world we were brought up in, it’s the gas we breath. But a human being’s outward body and inward soul are one entity: that’s reality, it’s the solemn teaching of an ecumenical council, and it’s thoroughly backed by neuroscience and (good) psychology. To destroy worship is to destroy the faith.

    All this is just another way of suggesting that the Pope may — may — be acting ultra vires here.

    (And yes, I’m only a layman, but the legality of the document is totally my business since it has struck directly at my state in life and my duties in justice. My kids are inculcated in the TLM, are benefiting enormously from it, are moved by the seriousness and quiet of it, and may be made holy by it. I will absolutely obey a lawful command no matter how painful, but will study the legality thoroughly before I decide what to do. May God bless Pope Francis and keep us from a spirit of rebellion.)

    * Thanks Fr Hunwicke for this quote and Latin translations

  12. James C says:

    You know what made me angry today? Reading Archbishop DiNoia, OP, curial bureaucrat and former Secretary of CDW, describe us thus:

    Since St. John Paul allowed some use of the older liturgy and, especially since “Summorum Pontificum,” Archbishop Di Noia said, “the thing has gotten totally out of control and become a movement, especially in the U.S., France and England—a movement that aggressively promotes the Traditional Latin Mass among young people and others as if this ‘extraordinary form’ were the true liturgy for the true church.”

    “The TLM movement promotes the rejection of that which the liturgical movement sought above all: active participation of the faithful in the liturgical celebration of the mysteries of Christ,” he said. “In TLM, there is little concern for active participation. The traditional Latin Mass, as in the past, becomes the occasion for engaging in various types of private prayer if the participants don’t follow the Mass with a missal.”

    The liturgical reform movement “was recognized at Vatican II as the work of the Holy Spirit and became the basis for a massive overhaul of the liturgical life of the church,” he said. “Pope Francis is right to see in the repristination of the pre-conciliar liturgy at best a form of nostalgic dalliance with the old liturgy and at worst a perverse resistance to the renewal inspired by the Holy Spirit and solemnly confirmed in the teaching of an ecumenical council.”

    https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/07/20/vatican-latin-mass-traditionis-custodes-pope-francis-241086

    How on Earth can DiNoia hurl these tired clichés at us and expect to be taken seriously?

  13. LeeGilbert says:

    Clement Harrold writes, ” a time for anger.” Such is the diction of young men in all ages and for a very wide range of causes.

    More surprising is to find the spirituality of churls in the mouths of seasoned priests and prelates, the spirituality of anger and resentment. This is the very same “leadership” that Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton et al offer the blacks. It is the spirituality of feminist nuns and would-be women priests. Most ironically it is the very same spirituality found among many priests and nuns in the immediate post Vatican II era, and just as perversion flourished in that climate to the great detriment of the Church, you may be sure that if it continues to be promoted among traditionalist priests and people great scandals will spring up from our number without fail

    Pace Harrold Clements there is no such thing as great anger and great holiness subsisting in the same subject. [Absurd.]

    The nod to prayer, fasting and tithing notwithstanding this article and all similar are a disaster for tradition and the Church.

    [Ridiculous.]

  14. LeeGilbert says:

    Of course I was leading with my chin when I wrote, “there is no such thing as great anger and great holiness subsisting in the same subject.” I should have added, “except briefly, as when Our Lord cast the money changers out of the temple.” But Clements is arguing for a fixed orientation of the mind and of the traditional TLM movement for that matter, is he not? How is this not simply incompatible with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? We simply cannot go that route and expect good fruits to follow.

  15. ChesterFrank says:

    Yes, it is a time for righteous anger. Especially since a grumbling of discontent has been brewing for so many decades. The underlying theme of the new catholic is “oh, it doesn’t matter.” I have waited decades for a TLM, but they never really have been introduced in my longstanding progressive diocese.

    Two sentences in the popes documents caught my eye:
    The first is:
    “With the passage of thirteen years, I instructed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to circulate a questionnaire to the Bishops regarding the implementation of the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. The responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene”

    And the second is

    “Art. 2. It belongs to the diocesan bishop, as moderator, promoter, and guardian of the whole liturgical life of the particular Church entrusted to him, [5] to regulate the liturgical celebrations of his diocese. [6] Therefore, it is his exclusive competence to authorize the use of the 1962 Roman Missal in his diocese, according to the guidelines of the Apostolic See. ”

    To this scientist surrounded by politics I read:

    1) My staff sent out a biased questionnaire to meet an objective
    2) Mission completed

    I am most curious about that questionnaire. My observations have largely been that many parishes have offered both forms of the liturgy, and a few have only offered the TLM. To my eyes the renewed interest in the TLM was a positive development in the Church. I can understand why some consider the popes letter to be a smack down. I also understand that many in influence and authority side with Pope Francis letter. If there is righteous anger coming from the traditionalists, I can also sense fear from the liberal supporters of the NO.

    Clement Harrolds final comment should not be missed:” Finally, sixth, we need to counterattack. Whether we’re traditional, charismatic, or somewhere in between, we need to write to our bishops to express our dismay and encourage them to retain the Latin Mass”

  16. You Can Call Me Betty says:

    I haven’t been to a Latin Mass since I was a toddler, and have no memory of it at all. Nonetheless I have a soft spot in my heart for Latin as the Official Language of the Catholic Church (or so I’ve been taught, is this now no longer so?) and have always loved it when, every now and then, some of the parts of the Mass have been sung in Latin.

    This has made me decide to teach my children as many prayers and traditional hymns in Latin as I can: I don’t need to know Latin grammar to do so, just look up the prayers and learn them. I’m not sure how we will use them, but it suddenly seems like they ought to be in our arsenal.

  17. Burton1990 says:

    And when they were sailing, he slept. And there came down a storm of wind upon the lake: and they were filled and were in danger.
    8:24 And they came and awaked him, saying: Master, we perish. But he arising, rebuked the wind and the rage of the water. And it ceased: and there was a calm.
    8:25 And he said to them: Where is your faith?
    Posing a thought, what exactly were we all doing last Sunday? Were we not sailing? Had God not already told us to travel across the lake? Penance, penance, penance. Do your duty in your state in life. Has Mary, most Holy Mother of God not given to us the instructions? Satan has thrown out his nukes onto the chess board and blown up the whole thing. And now we are scrambling and running around with rally cries and talking about all these things. Look at all this energy being wasted. We should humble ourselves and just continue on our way. Have we abandoned our Faith so quickly to think that we somehow have the power now? O my dear people, it’s Jesus. Jesus who wakes up and puts the storm to rest because we are children who have yet to learn patience. Look cautiously because this is the perfect distraction for those souls who were making progress in the spiritual life. It’s just the kind of fight they think they are ready to wage. Humility will test these waters well. Put it to the test. Next person to ask you about this, tell them the holy father has not asked me to commit a mortal sin, I must seek to see the hand of God in this. See how the fire and range is instantly quinched. No peace is to come from talking about your pope who God has given to you out of love the way we are talking about him.

  18. IaninEngland says:

    @ prayfatima:
    I agree. Maybe Francis is just the Bishop of Rome and no more. Equal in rank to the Bishop of Black Duck. He did, after all, surrender the title Vicar of Christ. So, maybe, just maybe, that title is still proper to Benedict XVI, who is still busy on his knees in the Vatican while all the publicity focuses on Francis, his successor.
    Now, at Fatima, our Lady said to pray and do penance. This is how God gets things done. This is what Jesus’s Vicar should be doing; publicity is not necessarily the answer.
    What am I saying? Well, I can hear the crickets coming from Pope Benedict’s quarters, but if I listen very closely, I can also hear the gentle susuration of praise and intercession, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”.

  19. matt from az says:

    I pulled all funding to my parish, diocese, and a nearby order. I explained clearly that Francis hurts the whole Church when he hurts Tradition, and therefore the Church will not get a dime from me until he dies.

    The old saying goes: Money talks and bullshit walks. I told my diocese: When bullshit talks, my money walks. Nothing personal. Just business.

    I attend an NO parish, very mainstream and corny with lounge singer piano, big Boomer Tier hand clapping, and the laity gesticulating wildly aping the priest. I need this nonsense to stop. I left the 70s behind 40 years ago and I don’t need to continue to relive those “glory days.” The TLM is the only way to go.

  20. Semper Gumby says:

    Amateur Scholastic wrote: “…the will of a superior is not the same thing as the lawful command of a superior…”

    Good point.

    Massimo Viglione:

    Where did the hermeneutic of continuity shipwreck? It shipwrecked, along with “Mercy,” in the Hermeneutic of Hatred.

    It is hatred of kneeling girls wearing white veils, hatred of ladies with many children wearing black veils; hatred of men kneeling in prayer and recollection, perhaps with the rosary between their hands; hatred of priests in cassocks who are faithful to the doctrine and spirituality of all time; hatred of families that are large and peaceful despite the difficulties of this society; hatred of fidelity, of seriousness, of the thirst for the sacred.

    Peace – the divinity of today’s subversion – is not an end, but rather an instrument of the Good and the Just, if it is aimed at creating a good and just society. If it is ordered towards creating or favoring a society that is Satanic, malignant, erroneous, and subversive, then “peace” becomes the instrument of hell.

    Jason Jones:

    It’s profoundly telling about Pope Francis’ moral character that he singles out for attack helpless laymen in little parishes in Oklahoma or Wyoming, just trying to pray. But he lets his functionaries flatter the butchers in Beijing who run concentration camps and steal human organs, selling them for profit – along with the products of slave labor, used by Nike and Apple. To cover for his perfect alignment with the World, Francis reaches into the toolkit of Victimism, generating statements on climate change or COVID indistinguishable from secular NGOs at the United Nations, or one of George Soros’ front groups.

    Pope Francis stands in solidarity with the Woke billionaires, the organ thieves, the prison camp profiteers, the wealthy Jesuits who serve as court dwarves to the LGBT lobby. He has no time for prisoners of conscience, pregnant women in crisis, or troubled lay believers who seek a refuge of ordered worship in a world that’s going mad.

    Dante:

    Here ceased the powers of my high fantasy.
    Already were all my will and my desires
    turned – as a wheel in equal balance – by
    The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.

  21. Semper Gumby says:

    This article, A Time for Anger, is helpful- especially the courses of action, which include Counterattack.

    Kerry wrote: “Bywater is up lads! We must be in it!” Indeed.

    A saying attributed to Edmund Burke: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

    Ronald Reagan, A Time for Choosing: You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” “There is a point beyond which you must not advance.”… Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits – not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

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