This is terrific. Here is old video of some bishops at the Second Vatican Council saying their private Masses!
The best form of concelebration!
Council Fathers offering their Private Masses after the Second Vatican Council was solemnly opened by Pope John XXIII pic.twitter.com/c89LeogHwL
— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) July 25, 2018
Tip of the biretta to AC.
o{]:¬)
Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass you frequented in fulfillment of your Sunday obligation?
Let us know what it was!
NB: Share a GOOD point. This isn’t a gripe post.
For my part, I took the deacon’s role for a Solemn Mass, with our TMSM‘s beautiful new green vestments. Not the best quality shot, but here we are. I think we made a good point with these vestments and the beautiful Mass.
The celebrant, the diocesan VG, made a great point. When he said Mass for migrant workers at a canning factory, they took up a collection that amounted only to about $36. Not a heck of a lot, but for those people it was indeed quite a bit, like the widow’s mite. On the one hand, he would have preferred that they had kept their much needed money and hadn’t taken up the collection. On the other hand, as small as the collection was, it is the most beautiful collection he had every seen, and it underscored their great dignity. In doing what they can, the poor reveal also their great dignity.
Enough of this!
It’s time for Pope Francis to appoint an “Indagator Particularis… Special Prosecutor”.
He will have to be a “Burke’s Law” kind of guy, who will find out who knew what and when.
A “Burke’s Law” kind of guy.
Who could it be?
We could call it “Burke’s Law”.
Something has been nagging me from the back of my mind today. I finally, late in the evening just as I was about to turn in, dredged it up.
One of my favorite Popes, Papa Lambertini, Pope Benedict XIV, was a great canonist and scholar. Among his many contributions, he established the process for canonization that is still in its major aspects in effect today. I have some great swag for him! HERE
He also issued a rite of Degradatio ab ordine pontificali… Degradation from the order of bishop.
If you thought the movie excommunication in Becket was spiffy, get a load of this. In the Pontificale romanum sanctissimi D.N. Benedicti Papae XIV, jussu editum et auctum of 25 March 1752 find the rite of degradation of all the grades of order, major and minor.
In the presence of secular officials. The praenotanda says that the scraping was to be without the drawing of blood. I suspect that there were slips. Even the tonsure was to be scraped. Eventually all clerical clothes are stripped and he puts on lay clothes. However, if later the sentence was found to be unjust, he is to be given back everything publicly, at the altar. The Degrader is to be vested in amice, alb, cincture, stole and red cope, simple miter, holding his crozier in the left hand. The rite is at the faldstool, versus populum, with the secular judge standing nearby and the rest of the clergy surrounding in their grades. They are to announce to the people in the vernacular what was going on. They then read a Latin decree with pretty stern language “… propter ipsius confessionem, vel legitimas probationes, evidenter invenimus eum ipsum crimen commisisse; quod cum non solum grande, sed etiam damnabile, et damnorum fit, et adeo enorme, quod exinde non tantum divina maiestas offensa….”
The is a stripping of the men of symbols for each and every order, major and minor.
Here is the rite for a bishop or archbishop:
Si degrandandus sit Archiepiscopus, Pontifex degradator aufert ab eo pallium, sic dicendo:
Praerogativa Pontificalis dignitatis, quae in pallio designatur, te exuimus, quia male usus es ea.
If the man to be degraded (Degradandus) is an Archbishop, the Bishop Degrader removes the pallium from him, saying in this way:
We strip you of all pontifical prerogative, which is symbolized in the pallium, because you have used it badly.
Deinde, vel si degradandus sit Episcopus tantum, Pontifex degradator amovet ei mitram, dicendo:
Mitra Pontificalis dignitatis videlicet ornatu, quia eam male praesidendo foedasti, tuum caput denudamus.
Then, if the Degradandus is only a bishop, the Bishop Degrader takes the miter from him, saying:
The miter being the symbolic ornament of pontifical dignity, because you besmirched it badly in presiding, we denude your head.
Deinde unus ex Ministris tradit degradando librum Evangeliorum, quem Pontifex degradator aufert de manibus degradandi, dicens:
Redde Evangelium, quia praedicandi officio, quo spreta Dei gratia te indignum fescisti, te juste privamus.
Then one of the ministers gives to the Degradandus a book of the Gospels, which the Bishop Degrader snatches away from the hands of the Degradandus, saying:
Give back the Gospel, because in the office of preaching, having despised the grace of God you made yourself unworthy and we properly deprive you of it.
Deinde Pontifex degradator amovet annulum de digito degradandi, sic dicens:
Annulum, fidei scilicet signaculum, tibi digne subtrahimus, quia ipsam sponsam Dei Ecclesiam temere violasti.
Then the Degrader Bishop takes away the ring from the finger of the Degradandus, saying thusly:
The ring, namely the sign of fidelity, we worthily withdraw from you, because you thoughtlessly violated your very Spouse, the Church of God.
Tum unus ex Ministris tradit degradando in manus baculum pastoralem, quem mox Pontifex degradator tollit de manibus degradandi, dicens:
Auferimus a te baculum pastoralem, ut inde correctionis officium, quod turbasti, non valeas exercere.
Then one of the ministers gives a crozier into the hands of the the Degradandus, which right away the Bishop Degrader takes from the hands of the Degradandus, saying:
We take from you the pastoral staff, that hence you cannot exercise the office of correction, which you have thrown into confusion.
Deinde extractis sibi per Ministros chirothecis, Pontifex degradator abradit degradando pollices et manus leviter cum cultello, aut vitro, dicens:
Sic spiritualis benedictionis, et delibutionis mysticae gratia, quantum in nobis est, te privamus, ut sanctificandi et benedicendi perdas officium, et effectum.
Then the gloves having been removed by ministers, the Bishop Degrader scrapes the thumbs and hands of the Degradandus lightly with a knife or shard of glass, saying:
Insofar as it is in us, thusly we deprive you of the grace of spiritual blessing (ability to bless), and mystical anointing (ability to anoint), so that you lose the office and effectum of sanctifying and blessing.
Post haec Pontifex cum eodem cultello et vitro abradit leviter caput degradandi, dicens:
Consecrationem, et benedictionem, atque unctionem tibi traditam radendo delemus, et te ab ordine Pontificali, quo inhabilis redditus, abdicamus.
After this the Bishop lightly scrapes the head of the Degradandus with the same knife or shard, saying:
By this scraping, we terminate the consecration and blessing and the anointing given to you, and we reject you from the pontifical order, for you are rendered unfit.
Tum degradando per ministros extrabuntur sandalia.
Then the shoes are taken off of the Degradandus by the ministers.
After all this, there follows the Degradation of a Priest.
Horrible.
Help me out if I have typos, etc. It’s well after midnight and I am rushing in view of a very early Sunday morning rise.
However, make yourself feel a little better by getting some Benedict XIV swag!
In his 1755 document Allatae sunt Benedict, who saw that a terrible practice has slithered in among some Greeks, he in the sternest way forbade “altar girls” and any thought of female deacons.
For this alone, Benedict deserves his very own FR. Z SWAG!
>>HERE<<
Behold…
And… wear him with pride!
From a reader…
Following the resignation of Cardinal McCarrick from the College of Cardinals, I have noted various articles that refer to him now as Mr McCarrick.
It occurs to me to wonder what the correct style would be in these circumstances for the former Cardinal. Presumably he remains (at least for the time being) within the estate of archbishop such that one would continue to use the style of ‘Your Grace’ or, I suppose, ‘Excellency’?
I guess so.
I think the style sheet of Hell’s Bible (aka NY Times) often uses “Mr” for just about everyone. When will they finally embrace toleration and diversity and no longer harass the Masses with these choice-stifling patriarchal modes of oppression?!?
Anyway, how to address former Cardinal McCarrick….. How to address… him.
It sure as hell ain’t “Cardinal Emeritus”. There’s nothing merited in that one.
How to address … McCarrick….
Lemme see.
How about… “Hey, you!”
Perhaps with a jab of the finger. Rather… a finger. A finger-jab.
If you are from S. Philly, S. Boston, or S. Bronx you might try a fervent, “Hey, a******!” See also finger comment, above.
There is also, I believe, a special greeting sound called the Raspberry (aka Bronx Cheer). That might work. If it’s good enough for the Fishwrap, after all, its good enough for him.
If you are from more reticent places, such as Minnesota or Wisconsin, “Ummm, excuse me…?”, might be widely understood, though – as I think about it – also not merited.
For me, however, the best bet would be not to address him at all. Perhaps a cold and still stare? People who know me well, well know the stare I’m talking about.
Unless it is in the confessional. Then I would have a few more things to say. And, thanks be to God, I’d be behind a grate… for his sake.
In any event, did you know that the index finger was called in Latin by our ancient forebears the digitus salutaris? The Salutary Finger? Salute Finger? Ancient Romans held up their index fingers when greeting people. I believe that in modern usage, at least on roadways, a different finger is more commonly employed.
I’d recommend a return to the use of the digitus salutaris, at least among frequenters of the Traditional Latin Mass. Be sure that your visitors don’t mistake what is being done.
Australia passes a law to require priests to violate the Seal of Confession. HERE
Then L’Affaire McCarrick flares.
Today I read that in India, a government agency, the National Commission for Women, wants the Catholic Church to abolish the Sacrament of Penance, confession, in the entire country. Why? Because women have to tell their secrets to a priest. HERE There is a horrid backdrop to this story but…. REALLY?
Extreme emotive reactions often wind up being the opportunity the Devil needs to strike.
Matthew 24:
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.”
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Take heed that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: 8 all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.
15 “So when you see the desolating sacrilege [“the abomination of desolation”] spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; 17 let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; 18 and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle. 19 And alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! 20 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 Then if any one says to you, ‘Lo, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 Lo, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you,
Click
‘Lo, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; if they say, ‘Lo, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man. 28 Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; 30 then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; 31 and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son,[c] but the Father only. 37 As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with the drunken, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, 51 and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.
From the National Review Online:
Despite Misunderstanding, the Latin Mass Endures
By LIAM WARNERThe same riches that profited Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint Francis de Sales are available to Catholics today.
Not a small group of people will read the title of this piece and, jadedly rolling their eyes, exhale, “Another one?”
By this they mean, another pathetic ode to the traditional Latin Mass, that unfailing attractor of curmudgeons and weirdos. It may feel as though accounts of the excellence of that Mass are issued weekly and persuade no one, instead merely reminding normal people of the limits of atavism. [Which is why normal, good-natured lay people need to get organized and get to work. Which is why normal, well-adjusted priests must at long last put on their big boy pants and start making some changes! Don’t allow the unfiltered “Id of Traddydom” to be the face and voice of Tradition!]
Defenses of the old liturgy, while not nearly that frequent, [NB] nonetheless do usually fail to reach even conservative Catholics. It seems that the precondition for liking the Latin Mass is found in a recessive allele, [sort of like a “recessive gene”] and that as many people who could like the Latin Mass already attend it. For everyone else, it is too strange, too old, too disconcerting. [A good word. It gets to the heart of the matter: Mass should be disconcerting!]
Yet one recalls, incredulous, that a few decades ago the entire Catholic world was subject to that Tridentine peculiarity. Ditch diggers and policemen loved it well into the 1960s, not to mention the unlettered peasants, many of them saints, who built and attended the great European churches for centuries.
The last 50 years have caused the faithful such an estrangement from their heritage that when the average Catholic sees the ancient Mass today, he recoils as violently as the tautest Genevan. [Geneva… center of virulent anti-Catholic Protestantism. And note the theme that I am constantly harping on: the violent weakening of our Catholic identity.] John Adams, serving in the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia, visited a “Romish Chappell” and relayed his experience to Abigail in his letter of October 9, 1774:
The poor Wretches, fingering their Beads, chanting Latin, not a Word of which they understood, their Pater Nosters and Ave Maria’s. Their holy Water — their Crossing themselves perpetually — their Bowing to the Name of Jesus, wherever they hear it—their Bowings, and Kneelings, and Genuflections before the Altar. . . . Here is every Thing which can lay hold of the Eye, Ear, and Imagination. Every Thing which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant.
Pitying the poor common folk who could be taken in by so overwrought a display, he was grateful that he had been raised in the clear, simple religion befitting a free man. Somehow modernity has gotten the opposite idea, that the overwrought display appeals only to pretentious nostalgiacs who wear bow ties and sing Gregorian chant in the shower. The first response is to be expected from a New England Unitarian, but the second is more unsettling. The Catholic patrimony of 1,900 years is treated as a discarded prototype, flawed and foreign, dialectically superseded by the Novus Ordo. [*]
When one considers, however, the faithful’s uneasiness during the transition from the old form, and the wrenching and massaging that were required to acclimate them to their new liturgical environs, one realizes that the average Catholic suffers not from genetic defect or Hegelian synthesis but from a simple lack of exposure. [The writer left out an important one: ecclesial PTSD. The faithful and priests were traumatized and, often, liturgically abused.]
Tradition is a muscle that requires frequent exercise to avoid atrophy, [YES! It is work.] and as regards the Latin Mass, Catholics have spent the past half-century emaciating like astronauts in zero gravity. [atrophy… another good word. I often use “enervate”.] No one is born used to altars and sacrifice and Latin and polyphony and weighty silence. [And yet children, especially boys, take to it like ducklings. Children seem to have a strong sense of the liturgical.] One must learn over time, acquiring gradually a taste for what one at first cannot understand. [It is hard work. And it should be! There is nothing easy about what happens at Mass.] Practices that seem inscrutable or even absurd reveal at length their ancient antecedents. Bemusement dissolves into confidence, boredom yields to rapture, chuckling becomes awe.
The hurdles preventing enjoyment of the Latin Mass are numerous, but they can be overcome. The most intimidating is usually the language, which, it is pointed out, people do not speak. That is true, but Cicero himself would not apprehend everything said by the priest because half of it is inaudible in the first place. Latin is the Church’s language, Roman and catholic as the Church is Roman and Catholic. Something is to be gained from the story of the woman who approached a priest after Mass with the complaint “Father, I didn’t understand a single word you said up there today.” “That’s all right, madam,” he responded; “I wasn’t talking to you.” [Okay.. that was me. I relate the anecdote HERE. Of course it is a great line that any number of priests could have come up with.]
Aside from snark, which is always satisfying, a lesson reveals itself. The priest offers the sacrifice to God on behalf of the faithful; he is our representative to God as were the Levites of the Old Testament, as is Christ even now. Indeed, at Mass the priest acts, per Saint Paul’s phrase, in the person of Christ — that is, as Christ Himself.
That is the reason half the words are inaudible. It is not that the Mass is merely happening to a passive congregation. [Not passive! Actively receptive!] It is that the priest, our ordained ambassador (or, as the English say, minister), links us to Calvary, and earth to heaven. The traditional form makes this point visually by positioning the priest not “with his back to the people” — as those prone to ecclesiastical glass-half-emptiness like to say [because they are willfully obtuse] — but with his face toward God, as a captain might stand ahead of his men.
What, then, becomes of lay participation, which many Catholics feel is necessary to their benefit from Mass? The answer is that internal participation excels (and is the goal of) external. [YES! The core of the message and the work of many years and many tens of thousands of words!] The faithful unite their intentions to those of the priest; they follow along in the missal or spend time in mental prayer; they weld their souls to the sacrifice. After all, the most active participation there ever was in any Mass was that of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, who neither did nor said anything the Evangelists thought worthy of reporting. In fact the famous hymn says only “Stabat mater dolorosa” — the mournful mother stayed.
Well-catechized Catholics know the foregoing doctrines, which are true of all the different liturgical rites of the Church, yet they shy away from the form that most visibly embodies them. [I think I know why. It has to do with what I have said about dealing with our “daily winter”, as Augustine called it, our “heims cotidiana”, that is reflection on and preparation for our death. Mass must help us to get ready to die. The hard elements of Mass are kenotic aids, in a kind of apophatic way of peering through the cleft in the rock as MYSTERY passes for a transforming glimpse.] That is, I daresay, a spiritual loss. The Latin Mass is certainly intimidating in its solemnity and otherworldliness, but how else should the Holy Sacrifice be than solemn and otherworldly? [YES! As I often point out in sermons, and here, it is wrong-headed to make Mass simpler, immediately understandable. There is nothing easy about Mass. During Mass the divine and the human are mysteriously brought together. How is that easy?] The same riches that profited Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint Francis de Sales can be available to every Catholic today, and it would be sad indeed to forfeit one’s inheritance because of a little discomfort. St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei — which uses the Novus Ordo and is wildly popular among conservative Catholics — said the Latin Mass daily until his death in 1975, well after the institution of the new liturgy.
“If it is so,” said Sir Arnold Lunn in the Sixties, “that the Latin Mass is only for the educated few, surely Mother Church in all her charity can find a little place even for the educated few?” Though I applaud the wit I cannot concede the premise: The Latin Mass is, and always has been, for everyone.
Everyone. Yes.
We need the older form everywhere and often. We need it for our very identity.
WE ARE OUR RITES!
Fr. Z kudos to the writer. I suspect he may read this blog.
*“I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It’s impossible to see what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community is calling its very being into question when it suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden, and when it makes the longing for it seem downright indecent. Can it be trusted any more about anything else? Won’t it proscribe tomorrow what it prescribes today?” (Salt of the Earth, 1997)
Before anything else…
Lots of people are really angry, indeed enraged. Horrid situations such as those caused by men like McCarrick are painful. We can make choices about how to view them. Anger is appropriate, but not to the point where we are merely giving voice to our spittle-flecked Ids. Sad situations like this must be taken as an opportunity for grace. When you see this filth in the Church, remember that Christ created His Church for sinners: you, me and McCarrick. If anger is the first impulse that we have when we see this awful stuff, the second impulse must be to say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”, and then go to confession and do some penance.
That said:
Bolletino. Theodore McCarrick has resigned from the College of Cardinals and Pope Francis accepted his resignation. McCarrick is no longer to be addressed as “Your Eminence” and he no longer has any of the privileges that come with being a Cardinal.
Furthermore, Pope Francis applied to McCarrick a suspension a divinis, which prohibits him from holding any office or acts of the power of order and governance. “Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.”
So, there is a canonical process underway. Since he resigned from the College, he cannot be “stripped” of that office. Keep in mind that Cardinals Law and O’Brien did not resign and were not removed by the Pope from the College. Law covered up crimes while O’Brien committed certain other delicts. Law, still an elector, participated in the 2005 conclave. O’Briens, still an elector, decided not to participate in the 2013 conclave.
Since he resigned as a Cardinal, there isn’t much left that can be done to censure him. It is possible that he could be dismissed from the clerical state.
The USCCB issued a press release. It doesn’t say very much.
I have long held McCarrick to be one of the most loathsome figures of whom I was aware in the Church, for several reasons.
Over the years I had heard from priests about the “open secrets”. Having been persecuted in seminary for having complained about homosexuals, I find people like him hideous. Also, he was a spectacular liar. He buried key text in Card. Ratzinger’s letter to bishops in these USA concerning voting. Also, after Card. Arinze presented Redemptionis Sacramentum to the press corps and responded to my question about Communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians (hint: NO!) – the spox didn’t want Arinze to answer, but John Allen backed me up! – Card. McSlime made a bee line to the cameras and microphones after the presser and said, “What Card. Arinze meant to say, was…” and then said exactly the opposite.
Lying on that level, and using his position as he did, is nothing short of diabolical.
I suspect that he will be “laicized”.
While I truly loath McCarrick, I hope that he has had enough of a shock at this point in his life, and still has enough time, sincerely to repent of his sins. There is still time for him, while he yet draws breath. I hope he manages it, with the help of the tremendous graces God must be offering to him. Sincere repentance and public statements about his sorrow could be great examples of God’s mercy. The greater the sinner, the greater the prevenient graces God offers in mercy… mercy which is rooted in truth.
I will try to pray for McCarrick, for my own sake, as well as for his. It is hard to loath people for whom you choose to pray. Charity and God’s own admonishments oblige us.
Please allow me to do my job, which is to keep as many people out of Hell as I can.
I must rant.
Remember: There is no sin that we little mortals can commit so terrible that God cannot forgive it and cleanse it from our souls. The key to this forgiveness is asking for forgiveness. God’s justice we will get whether we want it or not. His mercy is there for the asking. But we have to ask for it. That means sincere examination of conscience and then humble admission of sins.
Remember: God cannot be fooled. He know us better than we know ourselves. God cannot deceive. God cannot be deceived. God’s promises are absolutely reliable. We cannot trick God. Trying to trick God, deceive God, withhold from God is deep, black wickedness, which excludes one from His mercy.
Examine your conscience. For the love of God, go to confession. Confess everything sincerely. Don’t hold anything back.
Absolution from the priest is God’s own cleansing pardon that removes the stain of sin from your soul. You will have the memory of the sin, but the sin is gone, removed, cleansed. It is no more. Though your sins were as red as scarlet, they will have been washed white by the Blood of the Lamb who was slain for those sins precisely so that YOU could receive forgiveness, adoption as His son or daughter, and then membership in the Kingdom of Heaven.
How long has it been since you heard those words of absolution and felt that freedom as a child of God?
On a far happier note, from SpaceWeather and from APOD come astronomical notes of interest.
First, APOD says that Mars is in opposition. This mean that the entire planet is lined up against liberals, in a kind of solar systemic “resistance” movement. Mars disapproves of the “gay lobby” in the Church and wants you to take notice. Hence, because Mars is at its closest approach to your blue planet, it is at its brightest. Also, there has been a massive, planetary dust up, thus mirroring our Church, which has obscured much of the Martian landscape. Look at the difference.
Over at SpaceWeather we learn what I saw on my curial calendar today, namely, that there is a Lunar Eclipse in the offing together with a conjunction with opposing Mars! So, the Moon is also against the gay lobby and may be, like certain other voices, calling for blood, because that’s what color it is about to turn as your planet’s shadow passes across her face, in totality… except in North America!
Very cool. Alas, no totality where I live, so I won’t be able to see both the blood-red moon and the opposing red planet in their conjunction.
UPDATE:
The coverage of Stage 19 of the Tour de France mentioned the eclipse when they showed the great observatory on the Pic du Midi. Spectacular scenery. The stage began in Lourdes!
The stage began in Lourdes! You can see the shrine in this brief sample of the scenery from the coverage.
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Today I read at Crisis a smart piece by Eric Sammons which argued that, because of the unaddressed, indeed covered up scandal of McCarrick … and others, just wait!… Catholics should address the problem of feckless bishops by withholding money: “So perhaps it’s time to dry up those donations. If bishops begin losing money, perhaps they will hear the cries of the laity to clean up their act. ”
Today I read at Regina Magazine a blistering piece from Beverly Stevens in which she calls for all the money to dry up: “[T]he vast majority of Catholics are smart enough to simply divert their donations to the authentic Church, once they get the lowdown on what you and your minions are up to. Tomorrow, I will outline our ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval’ list of seminaries, charities and apostolates that teach the authentic Faith and which can be trusted with our money.”
I haven’t seen her list yet. I hope my TMSM is on the list. And, btw, I enjoyed her use of the Cosmo trope.
Today I read, and heard, at Church Militant the new “Vortex” offering from Michael Voris. He, too, is fuming mad. His recommendation? “Time’s up for the bishops in the United States as a collective body. They need to be cut off from your financial support.”
Are you sensing a theme?
Yesterday I made the same point HERE after suggesting that talking about hanging bishops on do it yourself gallows isn’t a very good approach to the problems we face. I was obtusely mocked for that at Canon212.
I wonder now if that same site will mock Michael Voris and Beverly Stevens for making the same suggestion. Or are they interested more in style than in substance? [UPDATE: Their response made my rhetorical question clear: probably neither. It isn’t clear that they read very carefully, given their response to this post. They seem to have missed the point that I agree with those who are calling for action. Too long, perhaps?]
Michael Voris’ “Vortex” piece deserves a little more examination. He makes his dramatic case for withholding financial support from bishops. For example, he says:
Sell off your [bishops] assets, your land, your buildings. Some of these dioceses have enormous sums of money in various holdings. [many don’t] Stop asking the laity to keep supporting your garbage with their money. Use your own money for once, and stop debasing the Faith even further with your money campaigns dressed up in religious or spiritual sounding sappy names — stop it, it’s disgusting.
No Catholic who believes the Faith should hand you guys one more dime — not one more penny. We have to support our parishes, but that’s it. You spend those special collections and extra income on sending dissidents to Rome for further study so they can come back with a degree in hand and spread error even further.
Now, just hang on a second. Let’s deal with the campaign and the seminarian issue.
Where I am, in Madison, The Extraordinary Ordinary, Bp. Morlino, started out with 6 seminarians when he arrived, after the reign of a super-lib. After a decade of hard work, there are some 30 seminarians. They are great guys, prayerful, devout, smart, dedicated. Two of the three men just ordained said TLMs as their First Mass. The Diocese of Madison was, when Morlino came, not financially ready to support more than 6 seminarians, and at $50K per man, 30 seminarians adds up! So, rather than raise money to build a cathedral, which had burned due to arson, The EO started a, yes, campaign to raise, yes, money to create a foundation that would generate funds to pay for the formation of priests. It had a sappy name, too: Priests For The Future. No, wait: that’s descriptive, not sappy. The campaign was a success. As far as “sending dissidents to Rome” is concerned, the Diocese has what I think might the largest contingent at the North American College with some 8 men. First, this shows the bishop’s desire that a) our guys can be Roman, b) they can support each other while being abroad and c) the money is being tended well. There are some okay seminaries in the states, but Rome has advantages, one being that it is less costly to send men there than most US seminaries. Moreover, our priests getting advance degrees are not wasting their time. One of our guys came back, overhauled the Tribunal and made it one of the most faithful anywhere, and now has been called to Rome to work in the CDF’s canonical section, which means that he is handling cases of sexual abuse. There couldn’t be a better priest in that section. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to what is done with money and whom one sends to Rome.
Here is another thing that Voris wants to happen:
Most of the bishops in the United States need to resign their posts immediately. If any board of directors of any company in America would have engaged in the systematic practice and cover-up of sexual harassment of adults under their authority, they wouldn’t have just been fired, they’d be behind bars, which many of these “leaders” deserve. [..] Resign. Resign, now.
Let’s think about this for a moment.
What would be the result of the mass resignation of bishops in these USA?
First, those bishops will have to be replaced. How will they be replaced? They will replaced at the suggestions of the “kingmakers”. Hint: McCarrick was a kingmaker. Today, Card. Cupich – who I suspect won’t resign – is a “kingmaker”. The kingmakers will make suggestions through the Nuncio to the Congregation for Bishops, which in turn will make suggestions to Pope Francis. Some kingmakers go directly to the Pope, which is what happened in the case of McCarrick, thus resulting in several, at least three, really important appointments in these USA as well as their subsequent additional elevation in ecclesial dignity. So, after these resignations, Pope Francis will replace those bishops with new bishops according to the vision he prefers.
Scenario: In the well-balanced Diocese of Black Duck, hard-working, faithful, tradition-supporting, doctrine-preaching, socially outspoken Bishop Nobel knew about the dealings of “uncle Ted”. After all, everybody knew for years. Say that, because he now feels badly that he didn’t do anything about a Cardinal – Cardinals, by the way, as the proverb goes, are “weak friends but powerful enemies” – tenders his resignation. They get a new bishop to replace him. The Holy Father moves our old friend Bp. Fatty McButterpants from nearby Libville over to Black Duck, and the merciful accompaniment begins.
I am not saying that Voris is wrong, but be careful what you wish for.
Next, as far as “sell off assets” is concerned, it seems to me that one day Holy Church will experience an upturn. To my mind, selling off, for example, churches, which are on coveted property, may result in us not having any church in places where populations return. For example, in Chicago, St. John Cantius and Queen of Angels were dead. Bernardin wanted to monetize the properties. The faithful held on. Near St. John’s the infamous Cabrini Green was shut down and the whole area got a face-lift as people started moving back. There are churches there. It would have been impossible to build those places today, given where they are. Building the beautiful Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin is one thing, and building in Near North Chicago, or in Manhattan, etc. is another. How about selling off the other properties, like buildings or land being leased out, etc? Okay, those properties generate income that can help to keep parishes open when their congregations don’t pay the bills.
I am not saying that Michael is entirely wrong on this point. The axe could go to some chancery offices, especially in certain dioceses, and his point about the USCCB was dead on. I am saying, however, be careful what you wish for.
Everything that I read and hear from outraged laypeople these days has a strong ring of truth and justice. That’s from laypeople. From my perspective as a priest, given what has been done to me over the decades… let’s just say that I work really hard to manage my urge to rampage. We all have serious concerns and we all want something to happen that makes a real difference.
But everything that we come up with has implications and consequences. There is a saying that more tears are shed over answered prayers than over the unanswered.
Lastly, say that all these things come to pass. Keeping in mind that Devil is really good at strategery, and will not be at rest. Whole swaths of bishops are forced through financial and other pressure to resign and dioceses and parish – yes, parishes will be hit – are, therefore, choked down into the dust. Churches are sold off, schools closed, the number of seminarians plummets. Pension plans of elderly priests are gutted. Large numbers of priests leave active ministry for various reasons, many because they shouldn’t have been ordained in the first place, and some because they finally burn out, exhausted and demoralized from the additional work, stress and isolation. No one is sent to Rome to study, so the dioceses become more “parochial”, which in more rural dioceses will have a huge impact on Catholic culture because it will affect the culture of the dioceses priests. Pope Francis listens to his advisers and replaces the bishops who resigned. The faithful priests who are left will more than likely be marginalized. Seminaries will probably start to shut down, because there won’t be candidates and dioceses won’t have the money to keep them open, because their income is gone.
Some may say,
“But Father! But Father! Wait a second! Isn’t that what we had to deal with back in the missionary days? Think of Fr. Baraga! Think of Fr. Mazzuchelli! Think of Fr. Marquette! Think of Fr. Junipero Serra! These were great men and they built the Church in really inhospitable places! Think of the North American Martyrs. Think of the early Church of the Apostolic era and the time of martyrs. Didn’t Tertullian say that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church? Okay, so he was a heretic and a schismatic. But he was right! If they, why not us? Furthermore, YOU HATE …. ummm… you hate… &^*@^!… YOU HATE THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM!”
It may be that the harsh scenario I sketched is exactly what we need.
This is God’s Church. He didn’t promise to Peter that the Church would withstand the attacks of Hell in these USA.
We should beg from God what is truly for our spiritual good. Be advised that, if He grants it, we will have a lot of tears to shed in this… what is it called again? …. this “vale of tears”. Yes, I knew I had heard that somewhere before.
This coming Sunday in the Ordinary Form, this Collect will ring in people’s ears that which in the TLM we heard, similarly, on the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost:
Protector in te sperantium, Deus, sine quo nihil est validum, nihil sanctum, multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam, ut, te rectore, te duce, sic bonis transeuntibus nunc utamur, ut iam possimus inhaerere mansuris.
This is military imagery. Rector and dux can be “guide” and “ruler”, but given the feel within the oration and given the content of the traditional readings for 3rd after Pentecost, namely 1 Peter 5 about the Enemy Lion, stronger stuff is needed. Rector is “commander of the army”. Dux is a “general”. Literally,
O God, protector of those believing in You, without whom nothing is efficacious, nothing holy, multiply Your mercy upon us, so that, You being our commander, our general, we may so use things that pass away as to be able to cleave to those that endure.
The Devil is roaming and roaring. In writing about this Collect in the past, I’ve said that we pray for sin-Teflon and demon-Kevlar.
I suspect that the Enemy will savagely attack those who are making open announcements and calls to action.
This is WAR.
At the same time, the Enemy might even help to bring about what is being called for. The Enemy always gets it wrong, but not before devastation causes great loss of souls.
Souls will be lost if what some call for comes to pass. Souls will be gained. But when you are in the grinder, grinding it out, it’s pretty awful. I hope we all have the nerve and stomach for it and the will to pray from our knees and hearts for great graces.
If we really clean house – really work to clean the demonic out of the house – then we had better be super committed to what will result. Otherwise, as Our Lord warned with this menacing, warning parable:
“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, but he finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes he finds it empty (Greek scholázonta), swept, and put in order. Then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So shall it be also with this evil generation.” Matthew 12:43-45 RSV
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