Crisis: Will today’s shepherds provoke a schism as they have in the past?

I am from the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, where, back in the day, the “consecrated blizzard of the North”, Archbp. John Ireland (nomen omen) drove thousands of Ruthenian Catholics into schism by his narrow prejudices and tyrannical attitude. Ireland had help from Rome.

Today there is a great article at Crisis in which the writer wonders if history isn’t repeating itself. To put it as I think it was Twain put it, history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.

Are Francis and his minions rhyming today with the Ruthenian situation of yesteryear? Is their blinkered, ideological oogabooga pogrom against traditionally-minded Catholics going to end up in a schism?

I hope not and I don’t think so.

I am confident that God “of surprises” will intervene in a timely way for the sake of Christ’s promises.

However, grace builds on nature and doesn’t not replace or eliminate it. We get along in world by grace and elbow grease, both. Traditionally-minded Catholics have a role in this farce.

A statement from the Crisis article underscores what I mean:

Shepherds should protect their sheep from the hostility of the world, not sacrifice them to it.

However, if their shepherds have abandoned them in these situations, God has not. Faith, hope, and charity alone endure. If Traditionalists can maintain these, and not give into rage or despair, they will outlast the present governors of the Church.

Do you remember that, back when, I used to rail at traditional Catholics always to be involved in their parishes and to be the first to step forward to help?  To excel in works of mercy and to be cordial in charity?  The stakes, as I underscored them then, were they could still lose everything they had gained.

Prayer, fasting, almsgiving.  Acts of mortification and reparation, especially for our shepherds.

ACTION ITEM! Be a “Custos Traditionis”! Join an association of prayer for the reversal of “Traditionis custodes”.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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6 Comments

  1. B says:

    If they have come against the likes of Pope Benedict and other esteemed traditional Cardinals and Bishops, they will have no pause in running over the laity. It is a time of a sort of white martyrdom. But God never forgets and is just. We may never see justice in our lives here but some day it’ll happen. It may be that traditional Catholics of today may be remembered as a sort of modern Vendee (in a loose sense)

  2. monstrance says:

    Events seem to be accelerating to the point where the clock might just run out before a Schism even takes hold.

  3. WVC says:

    The Latin Mass community of which I am a part is as close to a “hybrid” parish as I think is possible. We have a vibrant and strong Latin Mass community that has done much to support our parish. We have, for the most part, registered at that parish. We tithe to that parish. We have contributed a lot to the various building funds. We have participated in picnics, parades, service groups, children’s groups, Legion of Mary, and dinners. We’ve even started our own sodalities and devotional groups and have gone out of our way to invite fellow parishioners from the Novus Ordo Masses to participate.

    But when TC came out, very few of our Novus Ordo friends came out to help fight for us. They didn’t come to the Rosary offered outside the Chancery. They didn’t respond to requests to mount a canonically legal challenge to the decree from our bishop. Some haven’t even bothered to respond to a request to just write a letter to the bishop. Only one has gone out of her way to say to me directly that she hates what is happening and thinks it is evil. When they shut us all the way down in the near future, I have no reason to believe they’ll lift any more of a finger than they have thus far.

    It’s been very disheartening for me, personally. I thought we had invested so much of our time, talent, and treasure into the good of the whole parish, surely my fellow non-Latin Mass parishioners would stand with me to help defend our Mass and our community. As someone who sold his own home at a financial loss to move closer to the parish, I did what I could to commit to the community. Now I get the feeling I’ll be out on the windy corner soon, because when the bishop throws us all the way out, at the behest of the pope, no one is going to care.

  4. grateful says:

    They just don’t feel as strongly about it as you do.
    They have no idea about what they are missing.
    (There but for the grace of God, go I)

  5. Grabski says:

    Scranton PA Bishop Hoban’s prejudice led to the formation of the Polish National Catholic Church and Lithuanian NCC

  6. timothyturtle says:

    My wife and I spent 19 years since our conversion working at our local parish trying to improve the beauty and reverence of the NO Mass In conformity with the VII documents. We have been impressed with the almost total lack of resolve by our bishops and most priests towards making any lasting progress. About 4 years ago we started occasionally attending the TLM, and almost exclusively since last summer. We waited a year after TC to see how things would go. Now since last summer not one more cent to anything related or connected to the diocese (parishes,schools,vocations etc) until this TC nonsense stops. We send all our giving to formation of TLM priests and give to priests or non diocese parishes that provide the TLM including SSPX . We continue to pray for the pope and our bishop, but we must stop giving material support to those who are trying to destroy the Catholic Faith and those who collaborate with them.

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