From Vatican News: “Pope to Sicilian priests: ‘Embrace bitterness with tenderness'”
Do they hear themselves? No. They are the masters of shouting down a well.
Francis spoke to Sicilian priests. He said… I am not making this up…
I don’t want to finish without talking about something that worries me, worries me quite a bit. I ask myself: the reform that the Council has initiated, how are you doing with it? [Wait for it….] Popular piety is a great wealth and we must guard it, accompany it so that it is not lost. Even educate it. [Okaaaay. If this means dealing with things that verge on superstition.] On this read n. 48 of Evangelii nuntiandi which is fully topical, what St. Paul VI told us about popular piety: free it from every superstitious gesture and take the substance it has inside. But the liturgy, how is it going? And there I don’t know, why I don’t go to Mass in Sicily and I don’t know how Sicilian priests preach, if they preach as suggested in Evangelii gaudium [‘Cause, you know, that’s the be all and end all of preaching, as if no one has ever preached before in the Church’s history. And didn’t he just admit that he doesn’t know how they preach?] or if they preach in such a way that people go out to smoke a cigarette and then come back … [Lot’s of people showing up for your Masses? Let’s quiz them after about what the homily was about.] Those sermons in which we talk about everything and nothing. [The exact summation of many of these rambling digressions.] Keep in mind that after eight minutes, attention drops, and people want substance. [At this point he is 1766 some words into his talk with an average reading rate of 9 min 49 secs… maybe a little faster for a real Italian speaker.] A thought, a feeling and an image, and he carries that for the whole week. But how do they celebrate? I don’t go to Mass there, but I have seen some photographs. [?!?] I speak clearly. [?!?!?] But my dears, still the lace, the bonetas [birettas… what is it with this guy?] …, but where are we? Sixty years after the Council! A little updating also in liturgical art, in liturgical “fashion”!
[Like concelebrating at the Gesù with no vestments and just a stole? Is that it?] Yes, sometimes bring some grandma’s lace goes, but sometimes. It’s to pay homage to the grandmother, isn’t it? [My heaven’s how condescending.] You understand everything, right? You understand. It is nice to pay homage to the grandmother, but it is better to celebrate the mother, the holy mother Church, and how the mother Church wants to be celebrated. And that insularity does not prevent the true liturgical reform that the Council has put forward. And don’t stay quiet.
Lace is against the Church.
I won’t stay quite.
I am going on a pogrom against LACE. Lace is against the COUNCIL! Lace is against our MOTHERS! It’s fine for grandmothers…. but AGAINST MOTHERS!
This is crazy talk.
To repeat, the news headline: “Pope to Sicilian priests: ‘Embrace bitterness with tenderness'”
Yeah… which is this, I wonder?
BTW… my alb now… no evil counter-Conciliar lace!
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But what if the lace is dyed rainbow colors?
It makes you wonder what Pope Emeritus Benedict (or perhaps still Pope Benedict) makes of all this entropy occurring since his announced resignation from the Chair. There is some mystery to all this that may not be understood until we are long gone.
All I know is…more lace, more grace. Someone had best inform His Grace the ABC that Lace is Out with the Catholics…
Anglican-Style Alb With Adorned Lace!
The most boring homily I ever heard was given by Francis. He spoke in Italian, in Dublin. I have no recollection of what he said.
And furthermore, Father, you’d better darned well not even THINK about affixing any semblance of lace to that alb of yours! Lace-wearing priests are consigned to the ninth circle of hell, don’t you know, along with the ad-orientemists and the saturno wearers! I understand that there’s an addendum to Traditiones Custodes coming out that not only bans lace and saturnos, but STARCH (because it’s rigid!)
My grandmother didn’t wear lace, she wore polyester. So to be faithful to the Pope, I am burning all the 70s/80s vestments made of polyester.
Is it me or do these various statements basically translate to “orthodoxy is against the Council” ?
After this nutty talk….. more lace..more processions.
I thought that Vatican II was called to get rid of the hymn “Bring Flowers of the Rarest,” and it failed miserably in this effort — not that I mind that hymn’s survival. A little nostalgia can cut through a lot of Modernist claptrap.
The Holy Father’s rambling reminds me of the line by Anton Chigurh in the movie “No Country For Old Men”. He stops at the Texaco Station.
He’s conversing with the shopkeeper and says “ you don’t know what you’re talking about, do you ? “.
Has the Holy Father ever read the Vat II docs ?
As if the content isn’t bad enough his grammatical style is to me, almost incomprehensible. I know he is not a native English speaker, but still, it’s like watching grass grow for him to get to his point.
I read an article about this and the headline said he “humiliated” the Sicilian bishops. He did no such thing, he humiliated himself. He didn’t touch the bishops, they emerged unscathed I’m sure.
Outside of God there is no apparent answer to this problem. Time will take care of some of it. People inside the structure of the church have it much tougher than laity, much, I’m sorry for them. The laity just have to hold on to the faith even against destroyers, who are now everywhere. God is true. The faith is true. The church is true. Our Lady is true. These men are false. Dismiss them, laugh at them, mock them. Keep your faith. Ask God to return sooner rather than later.
“I don’t go to Mass there, but I have seen some photographs.”
Hmmm….but has Bergoglio also seen the numerous youtube videos of clown masses, puppet masses, Barney masses, masses with the devil distributing communion, or how about that “mass” at Chicago and with the priest using a guitar to bless the people? Hmmmm…. But I guess those are all ok because….no lace? Got it.
Taking on Sicilian grandmothers who knit that lace is probably not the best idea, with the lace mafia out there and all.
What is it with the war on beautiful things? I sometimes think modernist liturgists would prefer Mass be held in a dark sewer so there would be nothing to please the senses.
That is crazy! That doesn’t even make sense.
It is saddening and frustrating how much our pontiff and many bishops are trying to remove anything that existed before the council.
PS: I have to thank you for the satire comments in the commentary. They made me laugh out loud. I appreciated it. :)
So he’s saying that the problem is catering the desires of Sicilian grandmothers? Because there are few things more dangerous than going after Sicilian grandmothers.
A gram of grandmother is worth more than a kilo of priest (or Pope).
And to think…they’ll probably make this guy a saint some day!
Charles
I suspect he was referring to those horrid traditional women wearing their unmentionables, aka chapel veils.
The Astronomer reads this not-quite-logical diatribe against Tradition, thinks of a comment, realizes his uncharitable thought could be a sin, keeps silent, and just walks away, shaking his head in sadness.
Where is St. Pius X when you need him?
This week’s final score: Lavender 1 – Lace 0
I feel the Pope Francis’ white papal vestments and mozzetta are quite pre-conciliar. It’s really time to update his wardrobe. I’m thinking jeans and a Grateful Dead t-shirt.
Who made lace?
Women made lace. Nuns supported their convents by making lace. Mothers supported their families by making lace. St. Zelie Martin ran a lacemaking business, and her husband St. Louis Martin quit his job to help manage her more successful business!
Women invented lace patterns. St. Zelie, for instance.
And vestments included lace as both a delight to God, and as a support to women’s businesses and artwork.
So basically, Pope Francis is badmouthing all this, and he is condescending to St. Zelie because she was so stupid and backward and woman-y.
But lace is a network of threads. It makes one think of the nets of the apostolic fishermen and their fishing for men company, the koinonia headed by Jesus. So Pope Francis is inadvertently saying bad things about himself and his own office.
I mean, I say silly things when I don’t understand things. But I’m not pope. So I don’t get what he thinks he is doing.
“…but where are we? Sixty years after the Council!”
GREAT question, your Holiness.
I think Pope Francis is exaggerating. These days one sees very little clergy lace. Even more rare is the sight of a biretta.
And another thing. Broccoli. don’t you hate it. I mean, who eats that? I see young priests order it and it makes me so angry. My mother used to try to get me to eat my broccoli. That’s so pre-conciliar. In future, all restaurant orders must be pre-approved by Cardinal Roche. And he will say no but put your name on a list. Broccoli eaters!
They are frustrated because 60 years after the council the revolution has stalled and there is increasing pushback. This is what lace, birettas, and cassocks represent to them, that refusal to go along with this revolution that replaces the Church Christ founded with something else, a church of Man.
We are ruled by quixotically malicious men. Just as the largest problem in the US is white supremacy according to Biden, we have the pope attack the real problems seminarians have: with their unwillingness to believe in basic doctrinal tenets? No. Following the moral exemplars of the saints? No. Is it secularism? No. Its wearing lace, or being rigid.
Even they cannot believe this impious nonsense.
“We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”
Padres, For pity’s sake, if you have nothing to say eight minutes is an eternity. “Paschal mystery . . .blah, blah, blah . . .Paschal mystery . . . ” ad infinitum. No! Please start the creed, and soon
But if you have something to say, the fruit of your reading and reflection, delivered as if you yourself are interested, take your time. After all, what is twenty minutes between you and me? For a good sermon, take half an hour. Breakfast can wait. It is selfish, I know, but we seek learning from the mouth of the priest. Maybe you will stir me from my lassitude, correct my misunderstandings, inspire some good resolution, bring heaven and hell before my mind. . . make me weep for my sins. If you do not do this, what are you? And in eight minutes, you cannot do it.
Maybe the tradition-minded laity should start wearing lace to N.O Masses. We could form the Legion Of Lace.
L.O.L for short
The thing that gets me is that these folks that hate tradition are always yammering on about how forms are not that important. But as soon as they see a young priest in a cassock they immediately judge them and make assumptions. Oh well, they can dream about building their new vision of a Church. It won’t last, because it’s just a reactionary ideology. The demographic sinkhole is about to swallow up their silly little experiment.
Listen to Francis is like finger nails on a chalk board- besides being condescending, he insults the intelligence of his audience as well. Plenty of lace and birettas at the Oratory where I attend Mass. Last night I dreamed I was in Washington DC, where Francis was about to visit- I left before he arrived.
@Rob83 “What is it with the war on beautiful things?”
Beauty, Truth, and Justice are all things that manifest the nature of God and His will within creation. Ultimately, the modern wars against these things are because such individuals deeply dislike God and desire the equality of the devil.
To be sure, on the other hand, there is indeed a certain pre-VII kitschiness and sanguine effeminity that is the equivalent of the post-VII felt crazed sanguine effeminity. Both need to go.
But both are not lace, which takes craft and skill and has worth akin to fine metal work.
The homily though, that’s 100% pure “Old Man Yelling at Clouds”.gif
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Being a medievalist, I’m not a fan of lace, nevertheless this attack by the Pope is just nasty and puerile.
I was ordained in 1991. I decided to wear the cassock. My saintly foreign born Irish pastor knew I wanted one and he give me one.
I also occasionally wore khaki pants with the black collar. The good bishop at the time told me many priests (including him and his bishop) wore khaki suits with the collar in his hot Southern home diocese. He said they also wore the cassock. He commended me on my practicality since I serve in a very hot place too. He even said cassock could be cooler. The bishop encouraged me to wear the cassock especially as a sign to myself and others of Christ’s presence in the world and the holiness expected of priests.
However, when a few of the older priests saw it one would not speak to me another said, “Like the dress” a third said, “Young priests are going to destroy the Church.” My favorite comment was, “How dare you make the laity feel small”. (Supposed “clericalism”) Funny, the laity loved it. I did wear it for them and myself.
Now I go to formal clergy gatherings or diocesan events and I see many priests, not just young ones, in cassocks.
Few wear albs and stoles, most wear cassock and surplices either in choro or Sacramental acts outside of Mass.
I serve in a moderate diocese. No one brings up wearing the cassock anymore.