Abbey-Roads2

Secular press calls the Holy Father the biggest homophobe on the planet…

And yet uber-Catholics post photos like this inviting irreverent and sophomoric comments and captions.  How very, very sad.  Sad, sad, sad - to see unemployed people wasting their vocation and academic achievements on such nonsensical theatrics. 

Share This

The smoke of Satan “prophesy“.

So anyway, Pewsitter picked it up, as did Catholic World News:  Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s piece on the interview with Cardinal Noe - the guy who ripped out the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s- commenting on Paul VI’s famous words many consider a prophesy…

Pope Paul  accepted the liturgical reforms after Vatican II “with pleasure,” Cardinal Noe said. He added that Paul VI was not be nature a sad man, but “he was saddened by the fact of having been left alone by the Roman Curia.” Regarding the late Pope’s famous remark about the “smoke of Satan,” Cardinal Noe said that he knew what Paul VI intended by that statement. In that denunciation, he said, the Pope “meant to include all those priests or bishops and cardinals who didn’t render worship to the Lord by celebrating badly Holy Mass because of an errant interpretation of the implementation of the Second Vatican Council. He spoke of the smoke of Satan because he maintained that those priests who turned Holy Mass into dross in the name of creativity, in reality were possessed of the vainglory and the pride of the Evil One. So, the smoke of Satan was nothing other than the mentality which wanted to distort the traditional and liturgical canons of the Eucharistic ceremony.”  - CWN

Maybe that is the only meaning behind what the Holy Father said in the moment - but many, many more errors infiltrated the Church than what infected the liturgy, while many vocations wafted out the windows with the smoke.  (Don’t read too much into this, but as for unintended prophesy,  remember it was the high priest Caiaphas who inadvertently prophesied when he proposed to the Jews it was advantageous to have one man die for the people.  [Jn: 11:51, 18:14]  - Just my personal opinion and speculation here.) 

And of course, the Cardinal’s biggest omission - the role of the Masons in all of this.  Not one mention!  ROFLOL!     

Share This

I still can’t get my mind around this.

Feminist priests - not women priests - but the PC boyz - baptising kids using gender-neutral language; the baptisms were not only illicit, but invalid. 

Just think, Fr. John Doe’s parents were members of a dissident/progressive parish.  Little Johnny was baptised using the following formula:

 ”I baptize you in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier.” - Words Matter

What’s the big deal? 

He’s not even a Christian!  None of the other sacraments he received were valid.  His ordination was not valid, so every Mass he celebrated was invalid - no Eucharist, no absolution, no last sacraments were ever administered by him, no marriages… nothing.  Now.  Do you see why it matters for liberal, dissident/protestant Catholic faith communities to follow the rubrics and ritual of the Roman Catholic Church?  And called to task when they fail to do so?

Wasn’t someone supposed to be in charge when all of this crap was going on?

Art: “End of his rope: the suicide of Fr. Ryan Erickson.” Ex-voto. - T.N.

Share This

That strange lack of commitment.

Apparently prosperous Poland is having trouble keeping the faith.  (It worked out better when they were persecuted under the Communists.)  In his Lenten pastoral letter, JPII’s former secretary, Cardinal Dziwisz  stated that couples  living together before tying the knot is “a pagan way of preparing for marriage.”  (I wonder what the Polish divorce rate is up to now?)

This apparent lack of commitment amongst Polish lovers seques with a report that vocations are dropping sharply as well.

Bishop Wojciech Polak, who heads the church’s National Council for Vocations Ministry. “Today’s culture discourages firm life-long commitments. But we’re not yet seeing any radical, drastic drain in priestly callings, or feeling any tangible shortage of clergy.”The church statement announcing the fall in seminary admissions also reported that the total number of seminaries in Poland had fallen by one tenth. - Polish Catholic Vocations

What is happening in Poland is exactly what happened in Western Europe and the United States - Poles are just now fully assimilating into  the new world order - novus ordo seclorum.  John Paul II warned them about it. 

Well organized cultural revolution…

Some people would call it an agenda, but Cardinal Canizares refers to it as a gender revolution, emphasizing it is underway and well organized:

Cardinal Cañizares said that a well-organized cultural revolution, incarnated in lobbyists, legislative initiatives and the press, promote a “gender ideology” that rejects sexuality as a defining characteristic of the person.

“The human being becomes the result of the desire of choice,” the cardinal said. “Regardless of the physical sex,” the person — whether man or woman — “can choose his or her gender” and later on, modify the choice if so desired, taking on homosexual, heterosexual, transsexual or other lifestyles.

The 62-year-old cardinal warned that the “social and cultural change that this phenomenon implies has far reaching effects” given that for this ideology “nature doesn’t exist, the truth of man doesn’t exist, only unlimited freedom.” - Zenit

Without saying gay agenda - it kind of, sort of, fits in with that whole novus ordo seclorum, don’t you agree?  It also fits in with that Void Network thing.

(Photo credit:  People’s Global Action - learn more.)

Share This

 And maybe why some guys just hate going.

I wasn’t able to get to Mass for Candlemas so I attended the vigil Mass for Sunday last evening.  It was a flippin’  zoo!  The past couple of weeks it has been like that, despite the fact the pastor is actually pretty ‘orthodox’ - he follows the rubrics and all of that.

Last evening within  Mass, there were three infant baptisms, with the entire church called around the hot-tub baptismal pool after the readings and father’s homily.  (How is this not interrupting Mass?  Can’t Sunday Mass be without interruption?  Oh I know - we do it at the the Easter Vigil, and every Sunday we  commemorate the Resurrection - I know it is supposed to fit- but c’mon…  can’t it be done well?  Make it flow at least.)

After the prayer of the faithful, the finance person for the parish gets in his speech.  (Applause.)  Then the collection gets going, with the hideous piano-bar background music, and the cantor whose voice emanates from her throat, to the point she sounds as if she is gargling, singing those ole tyme religion schmalzie hymns.  Everything is too effing protestant!

Did I mention the youth group in front of me text messaging each other through out Mass?  Crap!  I forgot to mention the intro before Mass of all the out-of-towners.  “And where’s this lil’ lady from?”  She answers.  He responds with the accent thing,   “Oooh!  North Dakota!  Fargo I s’pose, huh?!”  (Laughter.  Applause.)  Then before the final blessing, everyone with something significant going on this week must stand up for all of us to raise our hands in blessing over  these special people.  (Applause.)  A big good bye to the piano player - she’s moving on someplace…  (More applause.)  Final blessing.  Final hymn.  I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

This isn’t what Mass, praise and worship is supposed to be about, is it?  Aren’t the words of dismissal, “The Mass has ended, now go in peace” supposed to mean that?  I left pretty agitated.

I’m not really complaining - I’m just telling the truth - THIS IS NOT THE MASS!  The Catholic Church was once the epitome of taste and dignity, now, in many American Catholic parishes,  it is the epitome of tacky, tasteless, worse than protestant schmalz.

While I’m on the subject, many Sunday Masses are the equivalent of a child’s recital or school play, which parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts,  seem to enjoy attending because their kids are singing in the choir or serving the Mass, or carrying up the gifts - or involved in some kind of performance art, and everyone else has to sit through the ordeal with a frozen smile.

Please!  Kill me now! 

(I know - if I don’t like it, I can drive 20+ miles for a trad Mass in the middle of the day on Sunday.)

Share This

The Bugnini guy wears Prada.

I’m just having fun with a few titles here - some people have real jobs in publishing, wherein that is all they do - they just dream up titles and headlines.  Anyway, Archbishop Marini, the former Vatican fashion director for liturgical costumes and Master of Ceremonies for papal liturgies has come out with a new book.  Catholic News Service is one of many to have the story:

The book, “A Challenging Reform,” was written by Archbishop Piero Marini, who recently ended a 20-year tenure as papal liturgist. His Vatican career began in 1965 in the office charged with implementing liturgical renewal.Archbishop Marini recounted the rise of a decentralized and dynamic reform movement in the 1960s and its “curialization” in the 1970s by Vatican officials afraid of losing control.

Many of the hard-won liturgical changes were accompanied by tensions and disagreements inside the Vatican’s central bureaucracy, he said.

The archbishop’s book, published by Liturgical Press, was scheduled for presentation Dec. 14 in London, where the author was being honored at a reception hosted by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.

The book focuses in large part on Italian Father Annibale Bugnini, secretary of the consilium and its driving force. As a young priest, Archbishop Marini worked closely with Father Bugnini and at one point was his personal secretary. - CNS 

So anyway…

The Archbishop’s book should be an interesting read - and it just may support some of the criticisms of the post-Conciliar liturgical mess and reforms documented in another book, The Great Facade,  by Christopher Ferrara and Thomas Woods Jr.  The Ferrara/Woods book is a mean one, yet really tells it like it is when it comes to what happened in the Church since Vatican II.  If you are comfortable with the Church as it is, I suggest you never read it.

However, I’m sure Archbishop Marini’s book is more self-congratulatory and affirming of the liturgical changes that were slipped in and imposed upon the Church since the Council.  In fact, Alcuin Reid suggests the new book is hostile to the reforms of Pope Benedict XVI.  If Marini’s book is hostile to the Benedictine reforms, it may well substantiate some of the harsher criticisms of the V-II liturgical reforms posed by the authors of The Great Facade.  The following is an excerpt from a review of Marini’s book from the  British Catholic Herald:

The book is also an act of filial homage by Marini to his mentor, Bugnini. Marini was at Bugnini’s side in the work of reform from the outset while still a young deacon and priest. It is a pity that their close personal association is not clearly acknowledged or discussed here.

Nevertheless, the book is significant because for the first time the political manoeuvring and motivations of Bugnini and Lercaro et al as they sought rapidly to bring about a “a liturgy that would be more pastoral and open to the needs of the contemporary world” are openly discussed.

What is clear is that the implementation of the liturgical reform was politicised from the beginning. The “enemy”, the Congregation for Rites, which was responsible for the liturgy after the Council of Trent, “was still firmly anchored to a limited tradition since the Council of Trent and not in favour of the broad innovations desired by the Council.” - Catholic Herald

It sounds as if Piero Marini’s words may someday be held against him.

[To read reviews for The Great Facade go to: Seattle Catholic; and  Christian Order]

Share This

It’s a celebration! 

I left Mass this morning looking forward to the peace and quiet of my home.  For some reason, today’s Mass was more like a concert; before and after Mass there seemed to be a continuous roar of the crowd.  Mass started off with the processional, which comprised the untrained altar girls, the lectors, and about 20 kids with sparkle-pinwheel-wand things - and then Father of course.

Missa Add-on. 

When everyone made it to the sanctuary, Father, as is his custom, had us all sit down while he does his welcome-all-the-visitors-and-find-out-where-they-are-from schtick.  Of course, we offer our welcoming applause - then all of us stand up, greet one another, shake hands, laugh out loud, yell across the church, etc.  After the penitential rite and a jazzy Gloria,  the kids are sent out in a procession for their own liturgy of the word, followed by the adult Liturgy of the Word - punctuated by an incredibly long, sappy responsorial psalm-type number.  After the Gospel - no homily - Father introduces a husband and wife comedy team - on two different mikes - pitching a volunteer promo for parishioners to sign up and get active in the church.  The husband’s cell phone went off, and guess what - it was God calling to ask for volunteers!

Thanksgiving after Communion din. 

After Communion and more awful hymns, we had another stand up - for the people who are doing something this week - we pray over them - then we all stand.  Finally, after the final blessing and another awful hymn, all hell breaks loose again.  I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

I don’t think Mass is supposed to be so annoying.  I have to start going to another church on Sundays.  (Sorry to whine, but it is really getting frustrating - the liturgies in the Catholic churches of South Minneapolis are far too protestant for me.) 

Share This

Devil in the details. 

Imagine an average Catholic, unfamiliar with the net, deciding to surf the web looking for good Catholic websites.  Imagine that Catholic stumbling upon some of the more extreme “Catholic” sites, not knowing the difference between a trad site  and a sedevacantist site  - or those that fall in between.  The average Catholic can easily become confused by the material and opinions these sites offer.  If you have ever read some of these sites, you would know what I mean.  Mrs. Parkes from the UK blog Catholic Mom of 10  has posted about some of the things she has run across in this genre of weblogs.  The upshot is, I don’t think she will be revisiting them anytime soon - Mrs. Parkes  is wiser than some priests in this regard. 

There are several sites that are definitely schismatic  and/or sedevacantist, collectively posting wonderful Catholic practice and devotions, yet not infrequently accompanied by an assortment of conspiracy theories contemptuous of Rome.  Then there are more traditional sites, supposedly in line with Rome, that heap aspersions on everything post-Vatican II.  (It’s kind of creepy how infectious the negativity and lack of charity expressed in these sites can be.)  Often times in so doing they cast suspicion upon everything the Pope and the Vatican says and does.  One site even criticzes the Pope for  wearing sunglasses!

It has made me much more conscious of who I link to in my blogroll, knowing that who I link to may indeed misrepresent the Church and and the faith.  (This applies to dissident Catholic sites as well.  A blog is a blog is a blog - but the people reading it may not understand that.)  There once was an Index  of forbidden books in the Church, with the belief that what one reads regarding the faith may indeed harm the faith of the readers.  It’s not a bad idea for Catholic bloggers to consider.

It took me awhile to figure this out.  I’m just a simple, average, Roman Catholic man.

[Warning: Some of the sites I link to above are not in union with the Holy Father, though they might claim to be “more Catholic” than he is - which happens to be a terribly presumptuous claim.] 

Share This

Just a few thoughts.

I don’t know what the rules are for Lectors at Mass, nor what training is required, but I have noticed that those who read are not always the best suited to do so.  Perhaps some of these people either haven’t  prepared  for the readings, or they are just not good readers.  In some instances, I’ve noticed how a few Lectors read as if they are reading a novel, or a narrative of a play, which can be distracting in so far as the listeners can be more taken with the delivery as opposed to hearing the word of God.

At Mass recently, a visually impaired man has been doing the readings using braille.  Obviously there is no problem with that, except in his case - he is not very good at it.  He misses entire sentences and reads haltingly, so that the sense of the reading is often confused.  The man is a regularly scheduled reader.  In this particular church, as in many throughout the diocese, missalettes  are not provided by which to follow the readings, hence a person cannot follow along with the text as it is supposed to be read.  Awhile back, liturgists discouraged the use of missalettes so that the congregation could focus all of their attention on what was read and hear the Word of God as was done in earlier times.

The same sort of misreading of the Scriptures occurs once in awhile at a children’s Mass, while we are either so distracted about how cute the kid is, or the kid just can’t read very well.  The upshot is, we don’t hear the reading properly.  The evident ‘requirement’ that lay people do the readings at Mass sometimes occasions the average person missing what was read, for one reason or another.  The Liturgy of the Word is essential to the Mass, and ought to be conducted with reverence, decorum, and prayerfulness.  I don’t think it should be the occasion for sentimentality, theatrics, or politically correct show and inclusiveness.

Though it doesn’t exactly apply to contemporary Catholic discipline, there is an interesting instruction for Orthodox monks on the proper decorum for reading the Word of God, which I will reprint here:

“Those who read the Psalms and the Daily Office, that is, Vespers, Matins, and so on, should prepare in good time and find the troparians and kontakions of the day beforehand, so as not to make mistakes during the reading in church and not to have to stop to look for things and thereby spoil the spirit of prayer.  The reader should stand straight, with his hands at his side; he should read without hurrying and without dragging, he should pronounce the words clearly and distinctly.  He should read simply and reverently without expressing his feelings by modulations and changes to his voice.  Let us leave the holy prayers (readings) to act on the listeners by their own spiritual power.  The desire to convey to the bystanders one’s own feelings is a sign of vanity and pride.”- The Arena, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov

Perhaps those who read at Mass could be held to a higher standard, considering the holiness of their ‘office’.   Now let’s talk about altar servers and their training - or lack of it.  I think I’ll save that for another post. 

Share This