Looking at the state of the Church? Wondering what to do?
Are you thinking about going all Leeroy Jenkins and doing something stupid like leave the practice of your Catholic Faith?
Are you straining at the chain to bite someone’s head off? Lash out?
Are you frustrated with pretty much all our shepherds right now?
This is us who are trying to be faithful and in harmony with our Catholic Tradition.
Thanks to my friend Patrick Madrid.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
on Daily Rome Shot 1016: nap time: “In a course on the Nichomachean Ethics I once took, it occurred to me that if pleasure were the telos…”
on Omnium gatherum: “Regarding the wedding, isn’t the priest in question excommunicated automatically for simulating a sacrament? What about the poor souls who…”
on Fr John Hunwicke – R.I.P.: “I’ve been surprised at just how hard I’ve taken the news of his death. We only met once, and that…”
on Daily Rome Shot 1015: Quaeritur and “blind mind”: “Father, Nice breakfast! Is that a deep bowl? ;-)”
on Omnium gatherum: “Father Anderson’s discussion of the royal passion bearers is here: https://instituteofcatholicculture.org/events/st-nicholas-the-passion-bearers”
on Daily Rome Shot 1015: Quaeritur and “blind mind”: “Kimchi is simple to make at home. And lasts a long time in the refrigerator.” on Omnium gatherum: “Thanks for pointing us to the very interesting article at NOR, Father. Among many interesting features is simply the turn…”
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on Daily Rome Shot 10112 – Brooklyn 24/4– Day 3 – A visit to the seminary: “I once had the privilege of serving in “The Largest Sacristy in the Diocese” which featured a framed prayer for…” on Daily Rome Shot 1014 – My View For Awhile – The last leg: “I grew up loving Chinese food, but gradually learned that this unique California cuisine bore little resemblance to what Chinese…”
on Fr John Hunwicke – R.I.P.: “I’ve been away and only catching up now, and I had no idea he had died, although as a very…”
on Daily Rome Shot 1014 – My View For Awhile – The last leg: “1. Qg8+ Kg8 2. Be6+ Kh8 (f8 can’t bi-locate) 3. Rg8#”
on Fr John Hunwicke – R.I.P.: “Building on what @iamlucky13 mentioned, it looks like Archive.org does have most of the site indexed – over 10k urls…”
on Your Sunday Sermon Notes: 5th Sunday after Easter (N.O. 6th of Easter) 2024: “NO Mass. Love is not a feeling, it is an action towards others, as Jesus act of dying on the…”
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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since Sat., 25 Nov. 2006:
Recent news has been disappointing no doubt. For myself, and I’m not exactly sure why, but these persecutions of good men have made me believe the faith all the more. Makes me believe in the divine nature of the Church all the more. Judas was present at the last supper also. While it’s terrible what has happened to the people of Tyler Texas, Joseph Strickland’s faith and courage has been an example of faithfulness to Christ for all the world to see. People see and people know! One will be remembered as a tyrant and a narcissist, the other as a man of the beatitudes. To my fellow Catholics, never give up the Church, believe in her and love her all the more!
I had a big smile on my face yesterday; my friends presumed I hadn’t heard about Bp. Strickland but I had. From what I know about him and meeting him just once I know he will be fine. Plus, loads of people are praying for him. We had a couple of masses said for his intentions a couple of months back–the kindly priest said one of them on Exaltation of the Holy Cross, pretty good timing I’d say–I am concerned about those in the Tyler Diocese but even then I had to stop and pause and realize that God is in control. Everything will be okay if we trust in His Merciful love. Covid taught me to appreciate going to mass and the sacraments especially the TLM. Also, looking back over that miserable time much good came from it. We have a Vietnamese parish near to our home and they have a statue of Our Lady of La Vang. That’s a pretty good story to read about! I think I’ll just cling to my guns and my religion! ;)
The answer is always merriment.
“Oh the weather outside is frigid,
And my morals are all rigid.
And we’ve only backwards to go.
Indietrismo, indietrismo, indietrismo!”
I am weary of all this one -sided comment about Bishop Strickland. Please consider this:
This decision to remove Bishop Strickland was long anticipated by most people who follow Catholic media, and many observers were surprised that it took this long. The escalating and often shocking statements made by Bishop Strickland in the past few years left many wondering why Pope Francis had not taken any formal action against him. More than a few Catholics, including bishops and priests, have asked, “What more does Strickland have to do to get kicked out?” Bishop Strickland’s behavior lays out many of the reasons why removing him was absolutely and totally justified. Strickland’s rise from a relatively unknown bishop from an obscure Texas diocese into a Catholic media figure and a household name among certain groups of Catholics in the US was driven by various Catholic reactionary leaders.
Since June, Bishop Strickland’s rhetoric and actions have only become more extreme. Just a few days ago, LifeSiteNews released the full transcript of a speech Strickland delivered in Rome on October 31. In his speech, Strickland read aloud a letter from a “dear friend” that espoused, explicitly espoused, sedevacantist ideas and alluded to passages in scripture suggesting that Pope Francis is the Antichrist!!! The letter described Pope Francis was a “usurper” who illegally took the papacy from Pope Benedict XVI, saying, “Would you now allow this one who has pushed aside the true Pope and has attempted to sit on a chair that is not his define what the Church is to be?”
I wonder was Strickland merely a pawn of a much larger movement bent on wrecking the Church and creating chaos? Was he, as Tyler priest Fr. Tim Kelly wrote, “manipulated and used by ruthless men, both laity and priests of this diocese, whose goal was to use the diocese and the bishop to push their extremist ideological agenda”? [There’s the smoking gun… you are a reader of the Fishwrap, which is where you got that quote.]
But Bishop Strickland was in the end not removed because of any challenges he made to Pope Francis. He was removed because of the appalling state he had reduced his diocese to. Read what some of his priests have to say on that.
[I reviewed some of your past comments here. You’ve denigrated relics. You defended Spadaro’s shocking statement about Christ. You’ve run down traditional vestments as “broad phylactories”. You’ve said that younger clergy who wear the cassock are “swanning around”. I don’t think you are very happy here. It would be okay were you not to comment again for a while until you have something constructive. BTW… I remember Fr. Kelly from my time in Rome. Sapienti pauca.]
In an age when every aspect of daily life and human function has been politicized and the most basic tenets of civility rent asunder, it has been The Church that, at least in my naive mind, was above all that, providing a solid transcendent bulwark against such a state. For an increasing many, however, current events suggest this might not be the case. Still, it is during these what seem to be rather dark and challenging times that I take great solace in recalling what has oft been written on these pages; that The Church has always survived bad senior leadership in the past and it shall do so again now. This Church is not a sinking ship to be abandoned; rather, events such as those reported herein should strengthen our faith and resolve to see it through.
Thank you father for this post. For me it is great timing. There is a great Orthodox parish in our community and after yesterdays news I actually started to consider it as an option as a safe place to ride this pontificate out.
I know it’s wrong but a person can only take so many blows before he wants to cover up for a while. It feels like the faithful have had to “look on the bright side” and “turn the other cheek” for years now. It’s exhausting. I can only imagine how hard it has been for faithful clergy.
John 6:68 gives me hope and encouragement to stay the course. The Church is His no matter the individual holiness of the men who administer the Church. Jesus and his Church have the “words of eternal life”. We just have to hold on. Sometimes it is good to be reminded. Thanks Father Z.
Todays readings from the EF are especially relevant, the Wheat and the Tares (or Weeds depending on translation). A tare is a plant that bears a great resemblance to wheat before the wheat fruits and produces its seed.
Jesus warns us that the Kingdom of God is like the farmer that sows wheat (the Word of God) in his field (the Church) and the enemy sows weeds (tares) in the same field. The farmer lets the two grow up together and then when the harvest is ready, The two are separated. The weeds collected and burned while the wheat is stored up in the barn.
The wheat are the faithful. The tares are those that are part of the Church, but do not bear good fruit.
Maximillian, your whole comment was pulled directly from a blog post on “Where Peter Is.” I came across the link to it on Spirit Daily, and noticed it was the exact wording I saw here earlier.
My husband still considers himself a Catholic, he even follows some very trad-leaning social media channels and in some ways he’s way more trad than I am, but he stopped going to Mass regularly more than 20 years ago. In 2020 during the pandemic he suddenly decided to start going again but that only lasted about 5 or 6 months because he got tired of the masking and social distancing rules. I have long hoped and prayed that he might come back to the Church — it causes me great sorrow because I blame myself for not being a good enough example for him and all that — but every time he shows any interest in doing so, something happens that ruins it. Fr. Pavone being laicized was one such incident, and now this with Bp. Strickland. I despair of him ever coming back to the Faith as long as Francis is pope, and I’m not sure even a change of popes would do the trick.
We always have to remember that the Church is a divine institution whose head is Jesus Christ (n0t the Pope) and of which there are 3 parts (Church Triumphant, Suffering, and Militant) of which only the latter part consists of fallible and sinful human beings. We must stay faithful to that Church and not be led into despair by what is going on around us both in the Church as well as in the secular world.
BeatifyStickler is right. I would just say, in spite of some comments made here, people who have spent time with Bp Strickland all seem impressed by his personal holiness. People said the same about about St John Paul (even if he made mistakes -some quite serious) and Benedict. A priest friend of mine was fortunate enough while a seminarian in Rome to serve Bp Schneider’s Mass – he was absolutely convinced he had been in presence of a saint. Now I’m not aware of anyone saying anything like that about Pope Francis. I may wrong, I may have missed it, and our impressions may be subjective but……..
While I trust the Holy Spirit to sort all this out in His good time, I fear that some bad things will happen in the interim. I question whether I can in good conscience continue to remain employed by the Church during that time.
Well Fr Z, I see that you are removing me from posting. Sad, but inevitable I guess. [It wasn’t my plan before, but I’ll strongly consider it.] You want only on here those who toe the line of attacking Pope Francis. [B as in B. S as in S.] It seems to me that the whole of the Traditionalist movement in the Church has been taken over by Pope Francis haters. I am a Traditionalist but I would never go down that route. [Your daily videos do not suggest this strongly.]
Things have reached an apotheosis with this Bishop Strickland affair. This is a man who most definitely has espoused a sedevacantist position and even endorsed the calling of Pope Francis the Anti-Christ!!! Shameful.
It is also shameful how many posters on here garnish their hate with nauseating, self-basting pietism.
[Brother, I want to chalk this last undignified bit up to you having a very bad day.]
I have been reading this blog for a good many years, and I don’t think that I’ve ever come across a post containing hate until that last post by ‘Maximillian’. I think the psychologists call it ‘projection’.
[Oh yes. In the early days there was quite a bit more, and on all sides. It got to the point where I had to impose a moderation queue on some posts, and then on some participants, and then on everyone. I simply couldn’t deal with the oversight and I needed to get the knucklehead stuff out of my life. Things have been calm for a while. I suppose they will now rev back up, which is a sign of the work of the Enemy.]
What to do? The best thing for me is to go on as before. Be grateful I’m not being bombed, shot at, imprisoned or raped. Pray for the Pope’s enlightenment. That the Holy Spirit moves the next one and the Church in a different direction. Try to live my life so I’m not too ashamed of myself at the end of the day. Try to love God instead of just being scared of him. And don’t give in to despair. It’s a long game.
In my own diocese we, thankfully, stuff have four parishes with the TLM. The downside is there are zero sacraments available in the traditional form outside of the Eucharist.
We have to travel to the ICRSS to have our child baptized, for them to be married, for them to receive the traditional last rights (this is really scary to me) if we are lucky enough to have a vocation and to be confirmed.
What purpose does this server other than to drive away Catholics from a home parish? The parish priest doesn’t like it, the bishop doesn’t like it, so who likes it?
As I get older (46 now) my tolerance for this type of apartheid within the church diminishes quickly. I seriously, as in daily, think about just moving to the SSPX for all things Catholic. I can’t really take the roller coaster any more and just want to get off the ride.
I love my diocesean priests, but the medicine tastes worse and worse. The doctors don’t seem interested in helping to treat the wounded. The field medics have had most of their tools and medicine taken away (we don’t know why). Eventually the wounded want a state of the art, fully staffed hospital for their wounds and full equipped doctors to keep themselves healthy.
I suffer watching my kids having to go through this. I very seriously worry they will just give up and leave when they are adults. Why would someone keep fighting to keep a ship from sinking when the captain seems to be throwing away the sails, the oars, the bilge pumps and everything else that has kept the ship afloat for millennia?
At least at the SSPX there is no concern the local prelate is going to get axed on a whim.
What to do?
Pray, go to Mass, grow in virtue, teach my children the faith, go to Confession.
Thank you for posting the picture to help keep in mind patience and wisdom.
I am grateful for Pope Francis. Throughout this pontificate, I have greatly tempered my anger and sarcasm. I go to confession with so much more regularity.
I pray for the conversion of the pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests. I pray that they stay true to the teachings of Christ and Holy Mother Church.
¡Viva, Cristo Rey!
“It seems to me that the whole of the Traditionalist movement in the Church has been taken over by Pope Francis haters”
Your perception is sadly lacking – in many things, not least basic charity. Those who throw grievous insults such as that around really need to look to their own maturity. It’s possible to have a disagreement, sometimes in very strong terms, without lapsing into the juvenile catch-all “hate”. Ask St. Paul – or anyone who’s understood basic Christianity for the last 2,000 years. I’ve been on here for over 15 years and I can assure you that “hate” is not a feature of the landscape. If it were, I wouldn’t be here. And yes, I do pray for the Holy Father daily.
You really could have served yourself better.
I don’t know what happens in Rome or Tyler, although I have been to both. I offer my rosary daily for the Pope, my bishop, and my pastor. I trust the Holy Spirit will see the Church through this age as all others, and I implore the Blessed Mother’s help, remembering the Memorarae.
I read this blog daily, and I’m grateful that those who know more, share more in this blog and the comments.
This is a man who most definitely has espoused […] and even endorsed […].
Dear Maximillian, do you seriously consider it even possible that any bishop would espouse and endorse such sentiments, but is kept in office for so long, and then removed from it on the sole basis of jurisdictional primacy without any judgment and without even saying that he has?
I have never heard about anything of this other than now from you; and I am not inclined in the least to believe you that Bishop Strickland does these outrageous things when the Holy Father himself does not say he does.
My cousin was diagnosed with schizophrenia after completing a degree in engineering from a prestigious university. My aunt tells me of how lonely she is as her old friends abandoned her. Too much drama for them to want to stick around, she said. I think of her often when I think of those leaving the Church under the current pontificate. Fair Weather and some such.