You can, I am sure, picture this.
Young families, with several small children, along with others of all ages and walks of life now have to rise that much earlier to travel the much greater distance to participate on a Sunday at the Traditional Latin Mass. They do so, with dedication and conviction, but it now costs them more in time, effort, and money. Everything has been made harder in times already hard.
As Father at the ambo finishes reading the Gospel in English, he takes up a sheet of paper and, with a humiliated and apologetic glance at the congregation reads the following:
“Those gathered for the celebration of Mass using the 1962 Missale Romanum are reminded that you belong to a parish for which priests are assigned for full care of souls and from whom the Faithful receive such care. Participation in this Mass is not a substitute for such care and the obligation to support your parish community.”
Men shift in their pews and cross their arms. Women look down at their prayer books or at the tabernacle. Kids stir uneasily, sensing that something isn’t right. Older people, who’ve been attacked for decades, glare.
Thus it shall now be in the Archdiocese of Detroit at the command of Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger.
I am not making this up.
Here is a screenshot from the document that that shepherd of the Motor City issued about the implementation of his inspirations:
One Michigander priest of my acquaintance sent me this:
Could we get a chant setting, maybe in Greek and Latin, for the deacon to make the “all you filthy trads remember to pay up to your territorial parish” announcement they have to make in Detroit?
I’ll get the ball rolling.
O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam, mementote sordidi retrorsi paroeciae vestrae territoriali solvere!
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…protection money?
Thanks Fr Z.
And Archbishop Weisenburger did this in his 3rd month following installation. Smh
In other news, Msgr. Weisenheimer has just announced his new episcopal motto: “Unitas per Crudelitatem” which translates to “The beatings will continue until morale improves!” His Excellency indicated that although he had made the change to honor Pope Francis’s “incredible legacy of Unity”, he was on his third diocese in the last ten years so it was probably time for a fresh motto anyway…
Well I tried to post a crown emoji. And it didn’t work. So picture a crown because that is brilliant.
It’s like the 13th century all over again. “No! Don’t give the money to those friars give it to meeee! It is my right! I demand it by law! Noooooo!”
The announcement makes more sense when you mentioned the cash to the territorial parish.
This has been a very sore spot for me for a long time. Since the diocese decided to restrict the TLM to just four parishes (where I am located), we have decided to no longer send any money to the annual diocese an appeal. Our money is now donated directly the priests who say the TLM.
We also give some cash at the Sunday TLM in the collection. Nothing goes to the diocese anymore. I am not comfortable financially supporting those who seek to isolate and marginalize my family.
Rome wonders how the SSPX build cathedral size buildings and it’s all paid for. People will find the money when they feel the money isn’t going to be diverted to some other purpose.
If there was a way to guarantee a TLM in our diocese with full sacraments that couldn’t just be ended at the whim of a bishop or someone in Rome, then the money to build an oratory would easily be found.
These heavy handed methods serve only to drive people away to other diocese or to the SSPX. It isn’t going to bring Catholics, and their money, who are done with the Novus Ordo back into local parishes.
Hi, maybe it’s Monday, maybe it’s chemo brain, but- what? What is he saying? What does he want people to do?
Tithe to their local parish? Tithe to the parish where they attend the TLM? What does he mean by “full care”?
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Why is it always about the money?
Someone attempted a Greek version, but didn’t pay attention to that note on the combox about “special characters”. His comment went to spam as nothing but a string of “?”.
Using unicode is the only work around.
The concept of the territorial parish, at least in these US of A, seems to have all but disappeared in many locales. And I thought the Precept was “contribute to the needs of the Church,” by which could be understood many different things, no?
Certainly your excellency. Here is my check for $0.02. I would do more but it’s all we can afford with the extra travel expenses.
I live in a part of Pennsylvania where there is no Vetus Ordo for hours in any direction. I came from a vibrant TLM community in NJ, but was compelled to move because of financial considerations. Now I have to sit silently each Sunday while the congregation CLAPS in time to a folksy ‘Gloria,’ hugs each other at the Sign of Peace and stands up at the Consecration, arms extended in the ‘catch-the-baby’ position. I feel like I’ve returned to 1977 and the Spirit of Vatican Two is still in full swing. Not just guitars, mind you, but a full rock band setting.
…talk about infliction of a moral injury. I pray that the Lord Jesus will forgive me because my heart is filled with anger every time I leave the service. It reminds me of a song by the late, great Tom Petty:
Well, I won’t back down
No I won’t back down
You could stand me up at the gates of Hell
But I won’t back down
In the meantime, your local parish is revising the old Marty Haugan tune “All are welcome” to a hip new 2025 version: “You’re not welcome”.
Trying to write a nice letter from a bishop’s POV, that covers the same ground.
“O congregati, o celebrati
secundum Missale Romanem
anno mille nongenti
sexaginta duo:
“O vos omnes, recordamini
‘in ministerium
mittere habitantibus’
in paroecias ‘fratribus’ (Acts 11:29).
“O vos omnes, recordamini,
paroeciae presbyteri
pro munere curae animarum;
et beati eritis, ‘quia non habent
retribuere’ vobis. (Lk. 14:14)
“O almi congregati,
non subrogat
participatio actuosa
in hac Missam Sacerrimam,
pro pecuniam eis darentur; (cf. Acts 24:26)
‘dignus est enim
operarius mercede sua.’ (Lk. 10:7)
Quaeso.
O pupillae oculi mei,
sollicitus sum et turbo ‘erga plurima.
Porro unum est necessarium.
Optimam partem” elegistis
‘quae non auferetur ab’ is. (Lk. 10:41-42)
Yeah, I bet I’ve made forty mistakes in Latin composition and poetry! I’m a barbarian!
As a born-and-raised-in-the-VII-Church guy, I have no idea what any of this Latin means, but I’m pretty sure the Commissar, er, archbishop, has invoked the well-known and widely-respected medieval formula asking for that parish support in the form of fermenting vegetables and twice-cooked soup bones. I could be wrong …
Thanks for the gold star! I didn’t expect it!
So, while Catholics desiring the TLM are not welcome, their money is. This speaks volumes to me on what his Excellency is about.
Michael Davies: “Bishops would rather churches close than allow the traditional Mass.”
Cardinal Müller: “Vatican official prefers an empty church to one full of people who reject New Mass”
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