From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Hello Father, I was raised (although not Catholic, I am a convert) to believe that you support your territorial parish no matter what, and attend their services and volunteer for their ministries, because even if the parish has a bad pastor and bad liturgy and bad catechesis, these things will never improve for those who remain, or are otherwise stuck, as long as the faithful leave for greener pastures. So I stay in my parish and attend the awful novus ordo mass offered because I believe I have a duty and an obligation to my church regardless of how I feel about it. I volunteer for RCIA but have no authority over the catechesis and sit and cringe as false doctrine is proffered. I pray and fast for our catechumens, and catechist, and the pastors, and these ridiculous “eucharistic ministers” as the priest has taken to calling the laity who hand out the host like hors d’oeuvres at the world’s worst cocktail party. Nobody likes me very much although I do my best to keep my head down. I am starting to question the wisdom of this approach because the whole thing is making me miserable. I can not save the church and I want my family to be inculturated into the true faith, not whatever this is. There is a much more orthodox parish nearby enough, although not territorially ours. Please advise. Thank you for your attention.
How sorry I am that you are in this pickle. One priest whom I consulted before answering … I wrote to several, including a bishop or two… wrote back:
Immediately upon reading this inquiry I felt a profound sadness to think that a man who takes his faith seriously, and is concerned about his family’s faith, should be put in this position by a brother priest. I cannot pass judgement on the priest’s conscience, but it would appear that his actions are disturbing.
My sentiments, too.
Your instinct to support your territorial parish is noble, generous and Catholic.
Ordinarily, the local parish should provide a community in which the faithful worship, receive instruction, serve neighbors, and help remedy lesser defects patiently.
Nevertheless, this principle does not impose an absolute duty to remain where liturgy, preaching, and catechesis endanger your peace or your family’s formation.
Canon law obliges the faithful to support the needs of the Church (can. 222 §1), but does not require exclusive attendance at, or financial support of, one’s territorial parish.
The faithful have a right to receive the Church’s spiritual goods (can. 213), and pastors must ensure that God’s word is proclaimed in its entirety and sound catechetical formation provided (can. 528).
Your responsibility is to safeguard and nourish your family’s Catholic faith, especially that of your children.
You have made a sincere effort. Remaining amid false doctrine while lacking the ability to correct it exposes you to occasions for anger, discouragement, and resentment. You cannot repair a parish single-handedly.
Go, therefore, with a clear conscience to the parish where doctrine is sound, worship reverent, and your family can grow in faith. Offer that parish your presence, abilities, prayers, volunteer work, and financial support.
You may courteously tell your present pastor why you are leaving, without accusation or bitterness. Registration and sacramental arrangements vary by parish or diocese, so ask the pastor of the other about requirements about reception of services there. Remember also that registration at a parish that is not your territorial parish or “personal” or “national” parish doesn’t make you a parishioner there. However registration is important for future needs and opportunities.
Depart peacefully, pray for those remaining, and seek the place where your family can flourish in Christ.
That said, I had a couple responses from my priestly consultants which merit posting because they were just too good. For example,
Some will lament the notion of “parish shopping” arguing that if every orthodox and pious person left the local “Catholic Community of the Servant Leader and Hugs” and drove 30 miles to “St. Athanasius,” it would deprive CCSLH of the opportunity to reform. Sorry, but some places need to be shut down, and can’t be reformed. In a reasonable world, if CCSLH hemorrhaged parishioners by the boatload and St. Athanasius grew by leaps and bounds, the wise solons of the chancery would look and say, “We need more priests like that pastor of St. Athanasius, and someone really needs to talk to that Servant Leader chap.”
Another:
There is a scene in the marvelous movie, A Man for All Seasons, in which Sir Thomas More says to the character, Richard Rich, “A man should go where he won’t be tempted.”
Another:
One is not required to be a passive participant in a situation that likely will cause spiritual harm.
And:
It is a noble thing to remain in once territorial parish, and if that is tolerable, it is the ideal. It sounds more like your faith is being assaulted. My advice in one word? Run!
I hate that my first reaction to this quaeritur is:
It’s not just me, then???
I don’t know how to untangle the complex SSPX skein, but I *do* know that the Church feels like it’s in crisis. I *do* know that this can’t be business as usual. I *do* know that the peace and sanity that existed a century ago was not just some oddball high water mark in Church history.
Letters like this remind me that I *do* know what I know, and am not going mad.
In charity, I could almost wish I were the one going mad instead.
Until recent years, I think our chancery would have found a way to punish the “St. Athanasius” parish and its pastor for their orthodoxy.
I recall about a year ago a defense being made for staying at a terrible parish in an article called “The Parish You Hate Needs You”. I then remember a very excellent challenge and response to that in another article titled “The Parish You Hate Hates You”. Perhaps some light reading is called for?
I have heard and seen this scenario so many times. I believe that in many dioceses that most people in a given “territorial” parish are actually from outside its boundaries. It is now the norm rather than the exception in many places.
A rather small percentage of priests or lay people even think of identifying with a “territorial” parish. Parish shopping is now about as common among Catholics in America as it is among Protestants. Few give it much serious thought. Can any bishop put the toothpaste back into the tube?
And the traffic goes both ways. It is quite likely that the CCSLH is crowded and overflowing with people driving from St Athanasius and from five other parishes, because they love the warm feelings they get there. They may care little for doctrinal and liturgical orthodoxy. And the collections at CCSLH may well be much more impressive than they are at St Athanasius. Serving Mammon has proven financial benefits. Orthodoxy may be costly.
The reader posed a good question that is not easily brushed aside. Whatever benefits he may find at St Athanasius, the problems at his home parish will likely get worse without his presence.
Funny and true story. We used to drive past our territorial parish two blocks from our home to an orthodox and vibrant N.O. parish about a mile away. Fast-forward a dozen years or so, and now the territorial parish has been folded under the orthodox one as part of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s clustering effort, Beacons of Light. Unsurprisingly, our territorial parish is now thriving.
We faced this situation 27y ago: recently married, wife a prot but open to the Catholic Faith, and one young son. After she went through their (tepid) RCIA she decided not to convert because “there’s really no difference!” Despite that the pastor asked her to teach CCD!
We had been very involved in this parish, and went through all of the thoughts and questions discussed above. I realized that my sole obligation was to my family, which God had somehow set me at the head of; not to the parish which had been entrusted to Fr. GoAlong.
I dislike the concept of “church shopping” but that’s what we did for the next few months – every other Sunday we’d go to a parish other than our own. I was 100% ready to bolt for the closest (40m away) TLM, which was in a gritty neighborhood and lacked stability (despite a wonderful community whom we number as friends to this day), but my wife was 100% opposed to everything about that idea. As such we kept looking for the almost mythical “reverent Novus Ordo” with tolerable music and some kind of recognizably-Catholic parish life.
As you can probably guess, we eventually wound up at the TLM – a different parish, 40m in the opposite direction, in a different diocese and state. 26y later we are still there. My wife became a Catholic after a few years, all five of our boys served Mass – two still do – and our daughter is in the Schola. I would note that all of our children – including the ones who’ve moved out – still practice the Faith. The care of one’s soul – and of those entrusted to you – is too important to stay in a parish endangers them.
My suggestions are: take your time and make sure the new parish is really the right place for you and your family; and when you do make the move don’t badmouth anyone, but write the pastor a charitable and succinct letter explaining why you have gone elsewhere.
Work, volunteer, support your local parish, but worship and be taught/catechized at the orthodox parish.
Keep in mind also that poison in poison, and if you are just a warm body filling a space with no ability to bring the gospel message to anyone, then you are just helping to row the boat in the wrong direction. Don’t do that.
///
Fr. Z, very helpful advice which I can extrapolate to fit my own situation. Thank you.
Something has bothered me for a long time. Every chemistry student in the world learns the same chemistry; every mathematician learns the same calculus. Everybody speaks the same “language,” so to speak. Can it be that not every priest learns the same Catholicism? If so, this is like trying to build a bridge with half of the engineers believing pi is 3.14159265358979… and half thinking that pi is exactly 3. That bridge will never get built because the two ends won’t meet. It seems like some in the modern Church are willing to accept a rounding error in theology.
The Chicken
This is truly a sad and difficult situation. I do share the sentiments of this man – but – no one seems to point out that there is an increasing number of younger and more traditionally minded priests who are being assigned to parishes like the one described here. I can attest to the difficult state of these young priests who have to suffer with the old boomers who take charge of Liturgy committee’s, music, extraordinary ministers, lectors, sacristans, altar server training, gossiping after Mass, parish staff with agendas, “c”atholic schools, severely weakened children’s catechetical programs, etc.
What I ask you all to consider is this: Please do not leave these priests hanging alone. In many cases, yes, there are unorthodox clergy in many of these parishes who continue the downward spiral. However, if you see a young and faithful priest, please do not leave. Support him!! Ask to be on the parish council, finance council, religious education, OCIA, etc. Start a men’s group or young adult group. To outright leave is depriving that priest of prayers, sacrifices and spiritual support from the few in his congregation who actually believe in the Faith. To have many people leave their parishes in order to go to the reverent/traditionally-minded one nearby is extremely disheartening to the faithful priests trying their best in deeply difficult environments.
In my territorial diocese, most parishes are like this. I got a bit of chuckle out his statement, “Nobody likes me very much,”. I know how you feel, brother!
I kept my head down for about 4 years until I saw how it was affecting my children who were enrolled in the parish school. Eventually, I knew it was my duty to defend and properly educate my kids. I started to speak up. It didn’t go well.
We eventually pulled our kids out of the school and Church Hopped until we stumbled onto the TLM. We were amazed at how beautiful, structured, and edifying the TLM could be. We have attended the TLM ever since and that was over 10 years ago.
An important note. As of now, Thanks Be To GOD, my oldest kids are adults and are still practicing the faith. In contrast, very few kids who remained in the parish school are still attending Mass with any frequency as young adults. This validates my decision to leave my territorial parish and diocese.
I think moving to a faithful parish is the right thing to do for your family.
To go along with what The Chicken said, it’s exasperating to commit to a parish, only for the baseline to be changed from pi to a rounded 3 depending on a new priest or new bishop (or the whim of the current pope). We CANNOT build bridges or anything of any significance if the very foundation we rely upon is up for grabs. And I don’t mean personality issues – we’ve always had and always will have those. I mean fundamentals upon which the Catholic Faith is understood and lived.
Everyone needs to really take this to heart – even if you have a GREAT territorial parish, it can completely change, sometimes overnight, with the appointment of a new pastor or bishop. This is a design to ensure no serious growth can ever be accomplished – and it’s hard not to think that’s the plan.
THIS is why FSSP and, to a higher degree, SSPX communities are so attractive. They offer STABILITY – you can invest your time, talent, treasure, and children in such a place and know that the rules won’t be changed on you part way through.
As someone who has invested quite a lot of his time and money into my diocesan territorial parish over the years, and now being in a situation where we parishioners are denied certain sacraments and kicked out of the church for at least one Sunday Mass a month (and we have it good – others have been kicked out of their church building entirely) – I am now very cautious about where I invest my money. It’s a breach of contract, so far as I’m concerned, for the bishop to take my money and then kick me out of my parish or deny my kids sacraments.
The parish near me I belong to the Knights (I am active, participate regularly and I have a good group there) but I am registered and attend Mass 80 percent of the time at the parish I am registered. Sure it’s a 35 minute drive and years ago I lived 15 minutes away from my regular parish.
A few years ago I helped with confirmation at the parish near me. I didn’t renew that ministry there because I felt like the religious education team along with some of the volunteers didn’t really want me there. (I think part of it had to do with I wasn’t in their clique – I hope that’s a polite way of putting it). At my regular parish I am a substitute CCD teacher for religious education and I find them much more welcoming and the children are better behaved! By the way both of these parishes are diocesan parishes that say the Novus Ordo.
Many of us go where we feel comfortable (my mother agrees) and I really don’t think the clergy mind that many Catholics are roaming Catholics as long as they fulfill their Sunday obligation.
This is something I have dealt with- I distinctly remember sitting in the pews at the NO parish I belonged to and being angry at the lack of reverence, protestant hymns, noise during Mass, really terrible altar servers (teenage girls looking bored)…. you get the picture. I told myself something is very wrong if I am experiencing sheer anger and frustration while attending Mass- Then I went to London to live for a year and attended the high Mass at the London Oratory across the street. That was it- I returned home and met with the pastor and told him of my experience and frustration and said I could not return to the NO Mass- he didn’t comment. I now drive 45 minutes most Sundays to the TLM at a shrine run by the Raritan Oratorians. That is not something I planned- maybe God sent me to London for a reason?
“One is not required to be a passive participant in a situation that likely will cause spiritual harm.”
Interesting: that is precisely the warning given by the SSPX, when they advise Catholics to stay away from the Novus Ordo. Now if only the SSPX could get their ecclesiology straight.
The tithe (10%) may not be withheld from the parish where the Catholic is canonically resident, even if the ministers are corrupt. No Catholic may preach, teach, or hold otherwise.
Council of Constance, Session 15, July 6, 1415
This holy synod, therefore, in the name of our lord Jesus Christ, repudiates and condemns, by this perpetual decree, the [following] articles and each one of them in particular; and it forbids each and every Catholic henceforth, under pain of anathema, to preach, teach, or hold the said articles or any one of them.
38. It is sufficient for the laity that at some times they give tithes of their produce to God’s servants. In this way they are always giving to the church, even if not always to the caesarean clergy deputed by the pope or by his dependents.
. . . .
41. The people may withhold tithes, offerings and other private alms from unworthy disciples of Christ, since God’s law requires this. The curse or censure imposed by antichrist’s disciples is not to be feared but rather is to be received with joy. The lord pope and bishops and all religious or simple clerics, with titles to perpetual possession, ought to renounce them into the hands of the secular arm. If they stubbornly refuse, they ought to be compelled to do so by the secular lords.
Council of Constance, Session 8, May 4, 1415
Error 18. Tithes are purely alms, and parishioners can withhold them at will on account of their prelates’ sins.
Council of Trent, Session 25, December 4, 1558, Decree on Reformation, CHAPTER XII.
Those are not to be borne who, by various artifices, endeavour to withhold the tithes accruing to the churches ; nor those who rashly take possession of, and apply to their own use, the tithes which have to be paid by others; whereas the payment of tithes is due to God; and they who refuse to pay them, or hinder those who give them, usurp the property of another. Wherefore, the holy Synod enjoins on all, of whatsoever rank and condition they be, to whom it belongs to pay tithes, that they henceforth pay in full the tithes, to which they are bound in law, to the cathedral church, or to whatsoever other churches, or persons, they are lawfully due. And they who either withhold them, or hinder them (from being paid), shall be excommunicated; nor be absolved from this crime, until after full restitution has been made. It further exhorts all and each, that, of their Christian charity, and the duty which they owe to their own pastors, they grudge not, out of the good things that are given them by God, to assist bountifully those bishops and parish priests who preside over the poorer churches; to the praise of God, and to maintain the dignity of their own pastors who watch for them.
loyeyoung: Thanks for chiming in. I especially enjoy quotations from the Council of Trent. They are so refreshing in this age of weasel words and walking together into the oblivion of process.
That said, some correction is in order.
Your texts (Constance, Trent) refer to legally owed medieval and early modern tithes, not voluntary parish contributions. Trent explicitly states “to which they are bound in law” and are “lawfully due”. So, this doesn’t apply to parish giving.
The present 1983 Code of Canon Law requires that the faithful support the needs of the Church. It does NOT establish either 10% or (pace Bp of Motor City) that it be given to one’s territorial parish.
Finally, the Decree on Reformation which you cited… the 25th and final Session of the Council of Trent was held on 3-4 December 1563, not 1558. There was no Session of Trent in 1558.
Our family also suffered immensely, believing that a reverent, solid, Holy Mass is the best catechesis for children (we have 6). About 10 years ago I counted up all of the masses at local parishes of a weekend, it was 10 or 12, and asked, “If Catholicism is a universal church, why can’t just one of those Masses be reverent–the lowest bar, just reverent?” I would say that, if you like the kookie, go for it, not trying to take it away from you–do your thing. But can we Catholics who desire the authentic, ancient, reverent, Holy Mass just have one? The answer then was no. No, you cannot.
For over 10 years now, we’ve been driving past many Catholic parishes every Sunday to worship God where the music is beautiful, where you are never the only people to show up for Confession, where the sung parts of the Mass are often in Latin, where only Ordinary Ministers distribute Holy Communion, where you will never see an altar girl, where we are never invited to hug one another while Jesus waits alone on His Altar, where the Holy Mass is never all about US, and very much always about HIM.
All of our kids are practicing Catholics, praise God! Three are TLMers; three are open to the TLM, but have chosen reverent NO parishes. Our middle son is a brand new Roman Catholic Priest, who baptized our first granddaughter on Sunday.
When he was in seminary, my best friend asked me if I thought he would be acting on a vocation to the priesthood had we not chosen to “jump ship” and join a parish outside our diocese. I had never thought of that. I can only say that the reverent Holy Mass and the opportunity to serve with men and boys certainly helped to guide him toward the priesthood.
My husband and I do not believe it is our job to make religious choices for other people’s children, but we take seriously the responsibility for the souls of our own. That foundation has worked well for us. So far.
WVC makes a great point about stability and why this makes the SSPX (especially) very attractive.
After how traditionalists were treated in the space of just one Pontificate – as the Church moved from Benedict to Francis – I would never rely on the Diocese again. Who would trust them again?
I would take my kids regularly to a Diocesan TLM. I donated money there and gave time there. We were part of the community, friendly with the priest and many parishioners. My 3 small kids were popular with the people of the parish, who often complimented their behaviour at Church.
I can remember cleaning the Church’s (extensive) perimeter railings by hand. I remember clearing rubbish and overgrown foilage from the Church grounds by hand, and transporting it to a dump using my own car. All this was in advance of a visit from Cardinal Burke, a TLM event which resulted in the busiest Diocesan setting I have ever witnessed.
Our ultimate reward for all this was to have our Mass abruptly taken away and to find ourselves homeless. The Bishop announced that one Diocesan TLM would remain, at a secret location and at a secret time – information which was not allowed to be made public, (as per Francis’ diktats) not even on the website of the Church hosting the secret Mass.
I have absolutely no time for this kind of mean spirited infantilism from the Church’s hierarchy. None whatsoever. Who would take this seriously? Who would allow themselves to be treated like this, by so called pastors?
So, although I did my very best for us to remain involved in the Diocese, we were ultimately pushed out and now attend the SSPX exclusively for Mass. We still visit Diocesan venues for (e.g.) Confession and Stations of the Cross – they haven’t figured out how to banish us from those yet.
I have to say though, attending the SSPX exclusively for Mass kinda like winning the lottery. What a blessing to have a beautiful, dignified Mass every Sunday, coupled with strong, orthodox, challenging sermons. One could almost forget the state of the Church, while wrapped up in this peaceful oasis of Catholicism. The high standards across the board speak of priests and lay people who take the faith seriously.
For all the supposed concern about Catholics going to the SSPX exclusively, the hierarchy needs to urgently recognise that it is they who cause, encourage and exacerbate this exact situation, at every turn.
To my great surprise, some of the other Diocesan TLM attendees simply returned to the Novus Ordo. I cant quite fathom that, but I do not criticise them. I wonder what goes on in their heads. Just like I wonder about my (novus ordo going) Sister – for example, at what point did she decide to stop genuflecting and replace this with a barely perceptible nod of the kind you might give to a vague acquaintance in the street? And what prompted her?
I did not return to the Novus Ordo – I will sit through it on the occasion some (wider) family event requires me to, but that’s it. In my locale, it is a reliably dismal experience.
The history of the Church has a consistent narrative of malign powers seeking to separate Catholics and the Mass. Pagans, Protestants, Muslims – and the rest of the sorry bunch. How sad to think that the current malign power attempting this is the Vatican?!
Throughout history, Catholics have gone to their deaths in defence of the Mass (the TLM of course – who would accept death for the novus ordo? For the right to dance to Shine Jesus Shine? Don’t make me laugh!).
St John Oglive was publicly executed a short distance from where I live, after he was discovered saying Mass in secret. St Margaret Clitherow was crushed to death as punishment for helping to hide priests.
I think of these great Saints and tremble at the thought that I would ever be required to risk my life on behalf of my faith. Would I be as courageous as they? As selfless? I very much doubt it.
But fortunately no-one is asking me to risk my life! And so the least I can do is not give up on the Mass (TLM). And I will not! The ire of Turcho Fernandez, Robert Prevost and William Nolan (our local Bishop, who is completely invisible unless putting the boot into trads) seems a very small and insignificant burden to bear, when I look at the ordeals St John, St Margaret and others had to endure.
This is sound and excellent advice. I’ll pray that the Questioner finds a parish that nourishes spiritually and maintains connection with the Universal Church.