UPDATE 15 July:
It seems that, again, there are those who cannot keep things to themselves. I had hoped to build a prayerful barrage regarding this really bad news, in the hope that, perhaps, there were still some chances that, behind the scenes, things could be worked out in a better way without the public eye on everything, thus to allow the Archdiocese to “save face” and not have to “dig in”.
You might respond that, given the Archdiocese in question, that was an act of the greatest optimism, even naivete.
I continue to believe in the power of prayer and that that must always play an important part in whatever other lines of action we are forced to take.
So, effectively, since the news is out on Twitter and other places,…
Cupich of Chicago has told the members of the Institute of Christ the King in Chicago, that he is effectively shutting them down as of 1 August. This will be formally announced on Sunday at the Institute’s church on the South Side of Chicago.
No Masses. Nothing. 31 July is their last day to function.
I’m sorry that the Institute itself was not able to break the news.
This is very bad for everyone, as it is another move to slam shut the gates of grace, to make the Church smaller, stingier, narrower. If a place is doing well, then – by gum – crush it.
It seems that they would rather have smoking, salt-sown craters rather than vibrant churches where Tradition is maintained. I am reminded of the fateful words of Tacitus about the Romans in Germany: “Where they make a desert, they call it peace.”
Ironically, even at Jesuit-run Amerika there are thoughts about how “excessive restrictions on the Latin Mass could push away some ordinary Catholics”. That’s an article title! The well-intentioned author gets pretty much mired in the externals of the two Rites, Vetus and Novus, and thinks that just by dressing the Novus Ordo in traditional trappings, that ought to be enough, the answer to everything. What he doesn’t understand is that the differences are far deeper. But this isn’t the time or place for that.
My heart aches for the faithful of Chicago… those left.
I still ask you all, please, to get down on your knees and say, at least, a Memorare for the people who will be hurt by this, for the priests involved.
And perhaps ask St. Joseph now, also, to take this matter into his mighty hands.
Originally published on Jul 14, 2022 at 19:42
I simply must not say what this intention is. I assure you it is a serious case of ecclesiastical pogrom.
News will come out soon enough, but in the meantime… trust me.
Let’s call this: Intention “I”. (UPDATE: It isn’t about me, but this affects everyone.)
I implore you all…
… get down on your knees and say, at least, a Memorare – which I advise in my “Custos Traditionis” invitation.
If you can do this several times a day. Do it.
If you can do a Rosary. Do it.
If you can offer a few days of fasting. Do it.
If you can spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Do it.
If you can fortify your prayer with a good confession. Do it.
This is ALL HANDS ON DECK.
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The Memorare.
The Catholic mystic Adrienne von Speyr believed that the consent of the Blessed Virgin Mary was not only necessary when the angel Gabriel visited her before the Incarnation, but is repeated at every mass.
I and I imagine others may have a sense of what this might be. Correct or not, I take your words here very seriously. Thank you.
How much more can we take from these people.
Dear God in heaven, have mercy. Our Lady, intercede for us, amen.
Sorry for the typos. I hate touch screens.
OK!
Praying and fasting for this intention Father.
AMDG
This is so sobering but I guess I should appreciate the warning and the opportunity to pray. We will be offering extra prayers and sacrifice and include this intention is our Lady of Mt. Carmel novena. I well remember last year the bad stuff hitting on her feast day. I love our Lady under this title! What a force to be reckoned with she is! Blessed be God in all things Thank you Father Z for alerting us.
Done and will do and will continue to do.
Done
Well, we all know what anniversary will pass this Saturday, July 16th.
I will pray.
On it.
Yes, Father. Dear God, what now?! When will the Lord hear our cries and intervene worldwide!
Will do. Thank you Father!
What in the world?!
15 decade Rosary on it stat
The entire novena (daily Mass, Novena, and Exposition/Benediction) to Good Ste. Anne, and the Feast Mass on the 26th at the Shrine will be my personal offering for your intention(s), FrZ.
[Thanks… for the intention I designated! It’s not about me.]
To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Oh goody….. I’m on it!!! Time to bust out the Lustral Water!!
Oh, swell.
And here just this morning after Prime while I was praying Psalm 108:8, I was thinking, “What more can he do? He’s done his worst, maybe he’ll just shut up and leave us alone now.”
One Memorare so far, more prayer this evening. I’m honestly clueless, but I trust you on this.
Our Lady, undoer of knots, unravel this knot so that it may not be knotted again.
Okay Father. Thank you for the alert. Scary times.
Maybe too we should also pray for perseverance through whatever is ahead.
Stuff is going to get worse, no doubt. I guess we are getting closer and closer to the worst. As the world globally [in convulsions of every kind of chaos and evil] reflects what happens first in the Church, we are bound to suffer God’s justice for evil happening in secret.
Gotta brace ourselves for what will look like the extinguishing of all things Catholic – Just as Jesus, our very God, died on the Cross and was put into a tomb. Imagine what His followers must have thought –that “this could never happen. How dare the hierarchy do this…” Christ Himself was put to death by the hierarchy. We must follow, clergy, religious and laity alike, if we expect to pick up our cross and follow Him.
Christ submitted to unjust orders [not sinful ones, but unjust]. Those that wield power unjustly are the sinners – while Christ, and we, win by obedience.
Evil doers WILL fail overwhelmed by their own constructs.
The devil lost at the Crucifixion…He doesn’t learn. It will happen again.
Does understanding this intellectually help suffering the up close sickening tactical details? ugh.
It all does have to get worse because Our Lady said: when all hope seems lost, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
Prayers and penance for all from me.
I happened to be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help today, and offered a prayer for this intention.
Hope is all we have and it is better to hope than to curse the night. However, if God has will that pharao’s heart be hardened, prayers won’t change that. What they will do is change us and permit the wellspring of grace to keep our hearts living from hardening and hating those that hate us.
Be afraid for bishops, especially those of this age. God will require accounting for every single soul in their diocese, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Pray for them that their reward is in the next, not this life.
Now that this is out…if we do not ask, we do not receive. God is infinitely more powerful than any cardinal, chancery, or pope.
Prayer works. It may be that Chicago would have received this trial anyway, but we can’t go around as if the will of someone like Cupich is the last word. May his eminence one day sign a decree reversing this one.
I am sick to my stomach over this news.
Pray for Cupich.
I pray that if this does happen that the Institute can sell the property to a private individual or some group that can hold and maintain the property until things change. I’m also afraid that the Canons of St. John Cantius might be next. The Cardinal will not sleep knowing that tradition thrives in his diocese. Just a sad state of affairs.
The only way these demons can be cast out is through prayer and fasting!
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Needs to stop. I can’t even find the words. ICKSP are faithful canons. They serve my parish. I don’t want to draw as to where. Talk about laying low! Leave us alone–same thing I say to government overstepping our rights.
When Francis apparently told the FSSP that they were ok and to keep doing what they were doing, “experts” talked as if this also applied to groups like the Institute of Christ the King. I guess now we find out that it doesn’t? I am a member of an Institute apostolate. The Canons are not wimps. We will see how they respond. On another note, didn’t Cupich keep the insurance money from the fire then finally let the institutes have the damaged property? Now that they have spent millions restoring it, Cupich pulls the rug out from under them? This smells of more than just a result of Traditionis. He has been after the Institute for years.
Father Z: Thanks for the update.
The problem is of course that people have already been praying specifically for defense of faith, morals and liturgy in the face of direct attacks from Popes and prelates for over half a century. They have been giving sacrificially. They have moved to places where they can join in common, reverent worship. They have built chapels. They have begged of the Saints to pray for the Church. They have prayed to God to bring clarity to the message and work of the Church as the message becomes more and more indistinguishable from whatever fad or trend occupies the minds and hearts of Communists, liberal Protestants and secular humanists, all of which are clearly the models for the new religion which we see all around us.
This new event is hardly surprising. The Pope has made himself perfectly clear: The TLM, along with the fullness of moral teaching that is part and parcel of it, is to be destroyed. The “Latin Rite” is to be reflected in a bizarre oxymoron of a “unitary celebration” expressed in endless chaotic and conflicting ways. He has said it and he has modelled it personally.
Communion: https://youtu.be/coY__PD0oko?t=477
Mass Starring Pinocchio: https://youtu.be/RwS9umpEkvs?t=163
(Previously, Papally condemned) Tango Mass: https://youtu.be/P4VbUtZW7Os?t=560
We should expect nothing less than more developments of the type now being implemented in Chicago. His goals are clear.
To this Pope (as he has said), previous Popes were wrong and lacked mercy and he has made it clear he thinks the the very Church itself has at least until he arrived reflected wrong thinking, wrong actions, wrong doctrine and still of course does in those places where the Old Rite is still celebrated. So that Old Rite must be destroyed.
The message he sends to the world is that he alone possesses the truth and can define it as he wishes and many “Catholics” are evidently happy to pretend that whatever he says today comes straight from the heart of God or more to the point, that Francis is somehow “God”.
I am reminded of the Bronze Serpent, given to the people for their healing, which became the cause of their falling away.
The pontificate of “Hagan Lio” continues…
My guess was totally wrong. Argh. Sigh. It could be worse, the Institute will continue its work elsewhere, but… it doesn’t even help the cardinal in a worldly way. It’s tough times and high crime times in Chicago. He needs to be keeping his nose to the grindstone, helping those who are doing well, or at least ignoring things that are going okay in his domain.
But nooooo. “We’re having trouble with priest numbers as priests retire and have to be supported, so let’s get rid of a bunch of free priests that I don’t have to support!”
Some bishop somewhere is going to be deliriously happy to get more priests.
Also, I think Chicagoans (and the rest of us) need to petition all the saints with any connection to Chicago. God loves that city and its Catholics, even if its cardinal is a little shaky on the concept.
The only thing I can figure is that Cardinal Cupich was offered development money for the parish property. But if he was going to leap onto that, he should have done it during the height of the real estate market. We’re in a drop, now. And that’s in the middle of a city, when even businesses are moving away from cities.
So again, it’s hard to figure out, even from a worldly POV. Making points with the Pope can be done with words, whereas real estate and free priests are stuff you keep for yourself.
[The Archd. of Chicago sold that property to the Institute. Cupich has zero control over it. The Institute can keep it. The Institute can sell it. The Archd. of Chicago get’s nothing from it if they do. For example, if the Institute wanted to sell their property to the, say, SSPX, they could and the Archd. would have nothing to say about it except, no doubt, for a strongly worded press release.]
Yes, I also understand that the cardinal kept the insurance money and I suppose with all the great quantity of church closures, he can sell those properties now for more money. If the goal of the modernist false church is to kill Roman Catholicism, how indeed would they proceed other than what is happening now?
Also pray for Bishop Joseph Perry. I’m hoping he’ll head back to Milwaukee after retirement, because I don’t think he’ll be welcome in Chicago anymore…
1. I am surprised this didn’t happen sooner in Chicago.
2. The Institute is a Society of Pontifical Right. How can they be booted just on the authority of the Ordinary of Chicago?
I feel tears for these holy priests and the faithful they serve. What a low blow!
Forgive the correction, Father, of your most apropos quote from Tacitus. The quote is from the Agricola. In his speech before the battle of Mons Graupius, the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus exhorts his tribe to fight for their freedom against the Romans.
The full quote reads:
“Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.”—They rob, they slaughter, they pillage, they call it empire under false names, and where they make desolation, they call it peace.
Again, forgive the correction—no pedantry intended. I never imagined I would apply the imagery of the struggle for freedom from Roman imperialism to the struggle in the Church for authentic and pious worship of our Lord.
May the Lord have mercy on Cardinal Cupich and convert his heart.
Father, I saw your statement saying Cupich sold them the church building.
I know it would never happen, but perhaps selling it to the SSPX in a gesture of synodality. I mean, that’s what the synod is all about, right?
I’ll be praying for this intention.
I wonder if the rumor that certain “American bloggers” who are Trads triggered TC and the nasty results. If so, perhaps we should all fight like crazy, but don’t draw fire down on innocent people. This pontificate is in its final innings.
I moved to St. Pius V Shrine in Lake Zurich from St John Cantius post TC – similar
to the SSPX in terms of canonical status. SSPX priests visit and say Mass when the shrine priest is away on retreats, etc. Here is the website link for information and Mass times – https://stpiusvshrine.com/
This made me. too, wonder about the ‘FSSP and the other institutes‘ hypothesis that has been a comfort in these months. Has Cardinal Cupich been given the nod from Rome to begin expelling them all? If 170 of the ~180 US ordinaries expel the FSSP et al, will they end up settling in the ~10 dioceses? And how long can those bishops hold out against Rome? Prayer, fasting, recourse to the Sacraments, almsgiving and the work of mercy: may God send us a new pope quickly!
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I am an expert in neither Canon or civil law, but am I understanding correctly, from this post and its comments, that, while the Cardinal can forbid them from saying public Masses, he cannot force them to vacate the property? If he tries, I hope he loses hard in secular court…
I pray they just ignore that schoolyard bully and continue as usual, claiming supplied jurisdiction as does the SSPX.
Prayers on the way!
Sad to hear this. Just tearful.
Tradster, that would do nothing for those who are at the Shrine specifically to avoid the SSPX, to avoid going outside of the Diocese lines.
The more I think about this, the more I realize Cupich may well revoke permission to the Canon who’s been saying the TLM at St. Joseph’s in Hammond, IN. (It’s barely over the IL/IN border, in the Diocese of Gary.)
If they want to relocate their headquarters to Upstate NY I will drive out to Chicago and pick them up myself.
The action by Cardinal Cupich seems extreme.
I wonder if it is believed that Cardinal Burke was the ordaining prelate for Fr. Alcuin Reid… and as Cardinal Burke has been a great friend and protector of the Institute, this is retribution for his action.
Just pure speculation but I can’t understand otherwise by such an extreme strong arm tactic.
I have been attending the ICKSP oratory in Rockford Illinois since 1990 or there abouts on and off. During the scamdemic I returned there for mass because they never made us wear masks and unlike the rest of the Rockford diocese we had holy water in the fonts. I would like to weigh in on this based on our Canon’s Sermons. The current rector is Canon Oconnor, a great priest and confessor. In one Sermon he stated he would never give up the Latin mass and would go to peoples houses and read it in their living rooms if he had to. He is now in the process of replacing the old carpeted steps to the high altar with polished marble. I can not see them doing that if we were going to convert to the Novus Ordo. His predecessor Canon Zignago always preached about the uniqueness and beauty of the Latin mass and explained why it was done the way it was done and the meaning of it. This showed true love of this mass and his devotion to it. Canon Zignago’s sister is also a member of the religious nuns of the institute. He was transfered to the Institutes headquarters in the woodlawn area of Chicago to oversee the restoration of the old St. Gelasius which was renamed Christ the King Oratory the Institutes current Headquarters in the U.S. Again another major renovation construction project. Why give up all that work and expense to be forced to do a Novus ordo mass. Both priests are in their early 30s. Another thing to consider the Institute owns the Woodlawn property and St. Stanelaus (sp?) property in Milwaukee. Legally the bishops can not kick them out.
The institute priests are devoted to not only the Tridentine mass but entire tradional church. Just my opinion of which that and $3.50 might get you a ride on the pace bus but I can not see these priests caving, I would really be surprised if they did. I plan on making my usual trip to the Rockford again tomorrow morning for the 8am low mass and plan to takes notes at the Sermon to post in my blog. Who I really feel sorry for are the many new young families attending there. My eye doctor is a Novus Ordo Catholic who lives in Rockford. He told me he knows of 7 large young families who left his Novus Ordo Parish and attend mass at St Marys oratory. It is these young families who will suffer not me so much I will survive like I did in the 1980s searching for the Latin mass.
This is what Peak Clericalism looks like.
Arise O Lord and let Thy enemies be scattered and let those that hate Thee flee from before Thy Face.
Chaplet of Holy Face for this daily.
Thanks, Fr. Z, for the info. And yes, that does sound like the Institute could do all sorts of things of interest and amusement, if it’s their own property.
I attend one of the Apostolates of the Institute. In June, the Prior General of the Institute came from Italy to visit the apostolate in Chicago and see the work done since his last visit three years ago. Just wondering if he received some notice from Cardinal Cupich of his pending uninviting of the Institute. Will/can the Institute maintain ownership of the Shrine and the National headquarters?
Many of us who love the Institute are holding our breath, waiting for the next shoe to drop. Please, please, please pray for the work of the Institute in Chicago and other Apostolates in the USA.
They need a civil lawyer fast. Forget canon lawyers, there is no canon law left except on paper.
I don’t get it. So if Cupich forbids the Institute from public ministry in his archdiocese, but the Institute is the owner of its church building and property, can’t they just carry on with business as usual and just ignore Cupich altogether? I believe it should be obvious that this is a case where disobedience would be both just and necessary for the salvation of souls. This type of persecution must be fought.
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I like your thinking, kurtmasur. A little fighting spirit (or alot!) wouldn’t hurt us.
I have often wondered if the Institute in Chicago is going along with the evil man simply for politics, as in the good of the larger institute. Being a vatican sanctioned society that owns the property I wonder why they listen to Cupich at all. But….he banned them from celebrating Easter this year at the church that they own and they listened to him. I think they had mass at a protestant church nearby. I heard it was so early in the day that it didnt count for Easter mass attendance. While it might be fun to tell Cupich, “thanks for the advice. We will give it all the consideration it is due.” perhaps that would have a negative effect on their seminary in Italy. I have no idea how faithful the bishop of Florence is but I figure closer to Rome probably is just closer to trouble. If they tick off Cupich I’m sure he would waste no time in crying to his fellow imps in Italy. We need to pray for the institute to overcome this and many future hostilities until our church is cleansed
So if Cupich forbids the Institute from public ministry in his archdiocese, but the Institute is the owner of its church building and property, can’t they just carry on with business as usual and just ignore Cupich altogether?
This makes me wonder, Cupich is 73, he’s less than two years from retirement. If they keep their property, what’s stopping his successor from allowing them to resume public ministry?
I spoke to a friend of mine in seminary for the Institute this weekend and he says +Cupich can only forbid public Masses, and that’s it. They can still celebrate Mass “privately,” but that would still be open to members of their lay apostolate. All it would do is cause a ton of people to join their lay apostolate and then they’d go on about their business, as usual.
Ann Barnhardt is right. This is a Providential sign for the faithful of Chicgo to GET OUT NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN.
They can still celebrate Mass “privately,” but that would still be open to members of their lay apostolate. All it would do is cause a ton of people to join their lay apostolate and then they’d go on about their business, as usual.
I’m mildly amused by this new revelation. Basically, it would cause the opposite of what Cupich wants.
This isn’t good but I don’t think it’s without its silver linings. It’s a tacit admission that, when properly exposed to it, a lot of Catholics prefer the TLM (otherwise, it would have gone away on its own, right?). The fact that in these situations it is rare for any appeal to be made to the inherent superiority of the NO, except insofar as it was supposedly mandated by V2, suggests that people like Cupich are not confident of the TLM slowing down on its own (quite the opposite). So you can take it as an extremely backhanded compliment. If TLM-attendees were really out-of-touch fringe eccentrics, then they would pose no threat and merit no response.
If I were Cupich, and I actually wanted people to like the NO, I would try to explain to them why the NO is superior to the TLM (in its inherent qualities, not just by appeal to the authority of V2). Again, the fact that virtually no one ever does this seems to be a tacit admission that it is not, in fact, superior.
Another thing is — no one is going to look at this and think, “Oh, well, I guess the NO is the correct implementation of V2 after all.” Everyone who attended Mass at ICKSP in Chicago is going to drive an hour to their churches in either Milwaukee or Hammond. So, the number of people attending the TLM isn’t even going down. (It might even make people curious, but let’s not get too optimistically carried away.) That also indicates short-term thinking born of desperation.
Finally, the institute owns the church (what’s left of it, it was mostly destroyed in a fire), for which (as I understand it) they have already raised most of the funds needed for rebuilding. If they go ahead with rebuilding, it will be rather interesting to have a brand-new, beautiful church and to tell visitors that the archbishop doesn’t allow them to say Mass there. Not a good look, as they say.
“But….he banned them from celebrating Easter this year at the church that they own and they listened to him. I think they had mass at a protestant church nearby. I heard it was so early in the day that it didnt count for Easter mass attendance.”
OK, as someone who was THERE, I do feel compelled to clear this up. Cupich had nothing whatsoever to do with the Shrine celebrating the Triduum at First Presbyterian. It was *strictly* a space issue. Stations on Good Friday were held at the Shrine and we were packed in like sardines. Canon H., God love him, did have Triduum at the Hammond apostolate as well, likely also to address the space issues in Chicago, but those were woefully underattended (as he upbraided us for on Easter Sunday…) We HAD to have Easter Vigil early so that FP could have time to get the building ready for their own Sunday services. For Easter itself, that was at the Shrine, but they added a fourth Mass, again, for space. Holy Family Chapel is wonderful, but it ain’t big, and I don’t think the fire chief was just going to look the other way if we had the place loaded to an unsafe capacity. Go ahead and fight against Cupich for what he HAS done, but the above claim against him is false and spreading it unchallenged does harm to the truth.
And if they rent it out to the SSPX for $1 per day …? Presumably the SSPX don’t have any restrictions on saying public masses.
I believe it should be obvious that this is a case where disobedience would be both just and necessary for the salvation of souls.
Dear kurtmasur, no, that is not obvious. Not in its entirety.
The disobedience would be just, yes – if it would even be disobedience; I think there are arguments out there that the order is a “non-order”, as we called it in the military. Weren’t there limits, even juridically, on what the diocesan ordinary can do to firmly established religious houses? But that is for the canon lawyers.
Also, it would be helpful for the salvation of the souls of the Chicago ICRSP adherent faithful, and perhaps others, if this unjust order weren’t followed. That I think is also obvious. – That it would be not only helpful, but actually necessary, however, is not obvious at all. In fact, I think it is rather unlikely.
By which I do not intend to dissuade them from heroic rebellion, if they should choose to do so. I do say that if they don’t they aren’t cowards, and it may well be prudent not to.
This is what I heard as well, from a reliable source. Continue to pray.
No announcement was made.
https://www.catholic365.com/article/19341/update-on-icksp-chicago-rumors.html
(This post is not spam.)
@Imrahil: Maybe to you it would not be obvious, but to me and many others it is. If Archbishop Lefebvre were still alive, it would also be obvious to him as well.
The fact that Cupich encourages Protestant “masses” and guitar blessings in his dioceses but at the same time shuts down the ICKSP makes it painfully obvious.
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… makes it painfully obvious that he’s doing the wrong thing. Which, as a matter of fact, is so obvious that we don’t even discuss it.
Does this, now, mean that an individual residing in his diocese there has no chance of salvation, not even with greater effort on his part, unless he were offered an ICKSP Mass? Has he no chance to grumble, embittered, it is true, under the archidiocesan leadership’s arbitrary whim which God in His Inscrutable Consel chooses to place him under, an with that to stumble on, joylessly taking a Sacrament here and there to keep up a very minimum of religious life, and, when he finally sinks onto his deathbed with joy that the ordeal is over, still to get to heaven? Has he really no chance of even that, unless he were offered ICKSP Masses in the Old Rite? Would, consequently the ICKSP canons, if they chose to comply for the greater good and give their service elsewhere where it is also needed, commit sin?
Now, the term “necessary for salvation” means to me, and I believe objectively, precisely this. And that, I repeat, is rather unlikely; what is certain is that it’s not obvious (an objective criterion).
(Archbishop Lefebvre’s position, by the way, was chiefly that it is necessary that someone keeps up Tradition somewhere; a rather different matter.)
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