southern orders

THE SAD STORY OF SCHISM IN AUSTRIA AND IT SOUNDS VERY FAMILIAR BUT ON THE LEFT OF THINGS DISOBEDIENT TO THE HOLY FATHER, THE BISHOPS AND THE MAGISTERIUM

2012-01-28T17:18:00.000-05:00

The schismatic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre thought he and his movement was more Catholic than the pope.
The schismatic priests in Austria and other European countries think they are more secular than the Episcopalians.

The left's schism is heretical and disobedient; it mocks the sacraments especially Holy Orders and the Mass. The right's schism is not heretical but it is disobedient and creates not unity but division.

A defective way to view morality is choosing the lesser of two evils when the good is present. I would recommend Catholics who dislike the Catholic Church in union with Rome to be disobedient in the form of the right's disobedience. At least it is not necessarily heretical in what counts.

The left's disobedience leaves one scratching one's head. Why not just become Episcopalian? Perhaps the Anglican Communion under the Archbishop of Canterbury should make a Catholic Ordinariate. But what the heck would their liturgy be? I don't think they'd like the Book of Common Prayer too much. But then the Anglicans might allow the Catholic Ordinariate Book of Uncommon and Weird Prayer and Sacraments?

READ THE LEFT'S SAD STORY HERE--IT'S HAPPENED THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, THANK GOD FOR GREAT SAINTS AND THE INDEFFECTABLITY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN UNION WITH THE HOLY FATHER.

ONLY A STRONG CATHOLIC IDENTITY NOT WATERED DOWN BY FALSE ECUMENISM OR LEFT WING SECULARISM OR DISOBEDIENCE TO THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE CHURCH BY RIGHT WING CATHOLICS OPPOSED TO VATICAN II CAN HELP THE CHURCH OF GOD FACE THE ANTI-CATHOLICISM OF THE OBAMA ADMIINISTRATION AND THE WORLD AS JOHN'S GOSPEL UNDERSTANDS THE TERM "WORLD"

2012-01-28T06:43:00.000-05:00

Two people refusing to follow the Holy Father allowed themselves to be used, duped and manipulated by President Obama in his bid to divide and conquer the Catholic Church in America in order to promote his socialistic agenda that the Catholic Church opposes. They are complicit in a very serious way in what is happening today with Obama's serious threat to impinge upon Religious Liberty and Freedom of Conscience--they need to publicly repent for the sake of the Catholic Community. They are Fr. John Jenkins, President of Notre Dame University and Sister Carol Kenhan DC, holding the pen that President Obama used to sign his health care law that she gleefully supported in opposition to the American bishops.

My Comments first: What the Holy Father says below is very much tied into Catholic Identity built upon the Church's orthodox faith and our obedient acquiescence to it. As Catholics, the enemy within the Church which is more insidious than the enemies outside the Church, such as the anti-Catholicism of President Obama and his administration, but those within the Church who reject the Church's teaching and traditional faith and are trying to remake the Church according a secular model. These elitist Catholics like what has transpired in the Anglican Communion (Protestant-Episcopal Church in America)which has become very secular and post-Christian, almost Unitarian. We must name who these people are in the clergy and laity of the Catholic Church: they are progressive liberals who hate Humanae Vitae and traditional Catholic moral theology. They are secular democrats who wish to impose upon the Church through civil law a secular model that conforms the Church to the world. Preeminent amongst these so-called Catholics is the Vice President of the United States,Joseph Biden, the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and the current head of Health and Human Services, Katherine Sebelis. We can also include the likes of most in the Kennedy clan. They are Revs. Charles Curran and Hans Kung. They are presidents of some Catholic Universities like Rev. John Jenkins of Notre Dame who poked the bishop of his diocese in the eye by not rescinding an invitation to President Obama who spoke there. That pivotal moment was a victory for the President's anti-Catholic agenda and his desire to divide and conquer the Catholic Church--Fr. Jenkins appeased that and was complicit in it.

We need not fear those new movements in the Catholic Church, who in their enthusiasm and founding years have experimented with the Liturgy and made it more "horizontal and meal like" but at the same time uphold orthodox Catholic faith and morals and obedience to the legitimate authority of the Magisterium of the Church and the Holy Father. Time will purify their "liturgical renewal style." But the leaven they bring to the Church from within and to the world outside is a public witness to their pure Catholic faith and acceptance of the moral teachings of the Church and fidelity to the Magisterium in the areas of faith, morals and Church Law. These new movements embrace Vatican II and Pope Paul VI in two ways that the left and the right in the Church tend to vilify. The left vilifies Humanae Vitae and thus natural law and thus divine law and the right vilifies the renewal of the liturgy and the experimentation that Holy Church allowed in the 1960's and 70's. In vilifying either, these groups vilify the authority of the Church and her Magisterium and thus strive to diminish assent to that authority from within. The two groups are cut from the same cloth. They diminish the true Faith of the Catholic Church and produce for her a "profound crisis."

Year of Faith is Pope's response to 'profound crisis'

Vatican City, Jan 27, 2012 / 01:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The upcoming 2012-2013 “Year of Faith” seeks to awaken humanity at a critical moment, Pope Benedict XVI said as he addressed the Church's highest doctrinal office on Jan. 27.

“In vast areas of the earth the faith risks being extinguished, like a flame without fuel,” the Pope told assembled members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who met in a plenary session on Friday.

“We are facing a profound crisis of faith, a loss of a religious sense which represents one of the greatest challenges for the Church today.”

Pope Benedict hopes the Year of Faith, which will run from Oct. 11, 2012 to Nov. 24, 2013, will contribute “to restoring God's presence in this world, and to giving man access to the faith, enabling him to entrust himself to the God who, in Jesus Christ, loved us to the end.”

“The renewal of faith,” the Pope announced, “must, then, be a priority for the entire Church in our time.”

His remarks to the doctrinal congregation came two days after the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the final day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Pope spoke about the quest to reunite all Christians, as he acknowledged that ecumenical efforts had not always served to strengthen believers' faith.

Along with the “many good fruits that have emerged from ecumenical dialogue,” there are also “risks of indifference and of false irenicism” – which give the appearance of unity, without regard for truth.

In today's world, the Pope observed, there is an “increasingly widespread” perception “that truth is not accessible to man, and that, therefore, we must limit ourselves to finding rules to improve this world.”

“In this scenario,” he noted, “faith comes to be replaced by a shallow-rooted moralism,” which can cause the dialogue between Christian groups to become superficial.

“By contrast, the core of true ecumenism is faith, in which man encounters the truth revealed in the Word of God.”

Pope Benedict told officials of the doctrine congregation, the office he led before his election to the papacy, that controversial issues cannot be downplayed or ignored in talks between the Catholic Church and other Christian churches and communities.

Matters of faith and morals, he said, “must be faced courageously, while always maintaining a spirit of fraternity and mutual respect … In our dialogues we cannot overlook the great moral questions about human life, the family, sexuality, bioethics, freedom, justice and peace.”

By defending the Church's authentic tradition, he observed, “we defend man and we defend the creation.”

YOU MAY WISH TO READ FATHER GEORGE RUTLER'S LETTER TO HIS PARISHIONERS CONCERNING THE ANTI-CHRIST BY PRESSING HERE--IT'S ALL TIED TOGETHER.

OBAMA'S ANTI-CATHOLICISM IS PROVOKING TALK OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BY SOME BISHOPS--THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BE A PRACTICING, BELIEVING AND OBEDIENT CATHOLIC!

2012-01-28T05:52:00.002-05:00

A call to action by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI to all Catholics in the USA: Pope Benedict XVI has taken note of what is going on on this side of the Atlantic. Last week he told the US bishops on visit to Rome: “it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats [by the Obama administration] to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be appreciated at every level of ecclesial life.”

My comment first: In the late 1980's Bishop Lessard of the Diocese of Savannah asked me to coordinate a public outdoor Mass for Pax Christi outside the Navel Base at Kingsbay, St. Mary, Georgia where nuclear weapons were brought by train to nuclear subs. Bishop Lessard was joined by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and the now retired bishop of Richmond, Virginia (whose name escapes me now). There were about 300 protesters from around the country at the Mass outside the fence of this military establishment. After the Mass, the Mass goers staged an act of civil disobedience concerning the nuclear bombs there by lying down in front of the gate and being arrested. Of course I watched from the side-lines. But at that time (and still today)acts of civil disobedience are permissible in Church law if the acts are to encourage the government to change policies that harm people or institutions. Of course there was not unanimous support for this type of civil disobedience at a military base by a broad base of Catholics.

What the Obama administration is trying to do to the Catholic Church is unbelievable in America. Even if I were an atheist I would join in civil disobedience against Obama not because I believe in God, but because I believe in America and the religious freedom this land was built upon and the freedom of conscience.

This is from the Turtle Bay Blog and Beyond. It describes its blog this way: Turtle Bay and Beyond is a blog covering international law, policy and institutions. Our experts - at the UN, European Institutions, and elsewhere - explore an authentic understanding of international law, sovereignty, and the dignity of the human person. We expose those who would seek to impose a radical social vision that is contrary to these principles.

Obama Administration at War With Catholics

Posted on | January 27, 2012 by Stefano Gennarini, J.D. |

The Obama administration is at war with the Catholic Church. It has opened yet another front against the Catholic Church on health insurance coverage by religious employers.

Since last August a guideline in Obama’s health care reform has been in place that will force religious employers to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. The law goes into effect in August this year. Only churches are exempt from this requirement. This means that schools, hospitals, and other nonprofits are not exempt.

Catholics are the single largest group that will be affected by this order because the Catholic Church holds that contraception, abortion and sterilization are grave moral offenses.

Last week Kathleen Sibelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, told other religious employers that they will have one year to comply with the guidelines, even as the Catholic Church hoped the guideline would be altered.

This latest attack follows last December’s decision by the Obama administration to deny funding to Catholic Charities because they do not provide abortion and contraceptive services to victims of human trafficking.

The administration is carrying out this campaign even in the face of indications from the Supreme Court that it is not constitutional. Just this month the Court decided Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which it upheld by a unanimous vote that religious employers are not subject to the same requirements as all other employers.

Benedict XVI has taken note of what is going on on this side of the Atlantic. Last week he told the US bishops on visit to Rome: “it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be appreciated at every level of ecclesial life.”

In line with these directives the USCCB has set up a website to decry the Obama Administration’s anti-Catholicism and invite the faithful to action.

Some bishops are already mentioning civil disobedience. Just yesterday Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark issued a letter to his flock urging all the the Catholics in his care to not comply with the health insurance requirement in so far as contraception, sterilization and abortion inducing drugs are concerned.

In the letter Archbishop Myers writes:

We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

Catholics constitute close to one quarter of the US population and are by far the single largest Christian Church in the US. Catholic schools and hospitals have millions of employees. They are a very important part of the electorate. Obama may be only putting himself in a corner by reneging on his promises of strong conscience protections to the Catholics that elected him.

BISHOPS ARE TURNING UP THE HEAT; BUT WHY ARE SO MANY CATHOLICS PASSIVE AND CARELESS ABOUT ASSAULTS ON THEIR CATHOLIC FAITH? POST-VATICAN II MALAISE?

2012-01-27T19:40:00.002-05:00

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My comments first: Bishops have allowed Catholic institutions to slip into non-Catholic secularism, especially those of higher education, so much so, many Catholic parents having sent their children to these Catholic institution thinking this would reinforce their children's Catholic faith, find out subsequently and hundreds of thousands of dollars later that their children lost their Catholic faith at these centers of higher learning but came out pretty good polemicists for a secularized church that confirms secularized society's standards. The loss of Catholic identity, bishops unwilling or fearful to take disciplinary action and outright dissent against the revealed faith and morals of the Church is met often times with a ho hum attitude by many in the hierarchy which would include priests and deacons of the lowerarchy. Thank goodness that something in our secular society is beginning to galvanize them!

January 27, 2012 From Catholic World News: Bishop blasts secularist intolerance, calls for ‘assertive action’ to defend Church

Noting that “American Catholics have in recent decades become remarkably passive even in the face of relentless hostility from the media, the entertainment industry, and now from some politicians,” Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria has issued a pastoral letter on secularism.

The letter, issued on January 8, received a wider audience when it was published in the January 26 issue of Origins.

“The Catholic Diocese of Peoria now exists in a political reality that is increasingly secular in outlook and today is often specifically hostile to the convictions of our Faith,” the bishop wrote. “Atheists and secularists have long realized that the Church of Rome is perhaps the largest single institution that still stands in the way of a completely secularized society. In Illinois where politics are notoriously corrupt and whose governmental agenda is so singularly ineffective, intrenched political power happens to be concentrated in a single region that for generations has been immune to reform. This situation has given determined special interest groups a unique opportunity to impose their views on everyone else as they endeavor to exclude faith from any role in the public forum.”

Bishop Jenky continued:

As your Bishop, I now believe it is critically necessary to raise an alarm among the faithful regarding growing threats to our religious freedom due to the increasing steps toward radical secularization taking place in Illinois. Beside the abrupt exclusion of Catholic Charities from childcare and adoption services and increasing attempts to intimidate Catholic healthcare, I am also concerned about possible future moves that could be made against the independence of our Catholic schools and other public ministries of our Diocese. Eventually it may come to pass that our fidelity to the Gospel of Christ and to Catholic tradition may place us in direct conflict with recent legal definitions of the State of Illinois. There are certainly some in our state whose commitment to [atheistic] secularism is so intense that they may well try to restrict the Church’s role only to the sacristy and sanctuary.

I am especially scandalized by some “Catholic” politicians who willingly collaborate with efforts to restrict the civil liberty of the faith tradition from which they were originally sprung. Many of those in office who were taught to read and write in Catholic schools, now seem entirely indifferent to the consciences of those Catholics who live their faith. On Ash Wednesday, they like to be conspicuous with crosses on their foreheads, but the true Cross of Christ seems far from their hearts and minds. They enjoy parties on March the 17th and wearing green sweaters but in effect are ashamed of Saint Patrick’s unwavering zeal for the Catholic Christianity. They like photo opportunities with the hierarchy, but break their word to them without a moment’s hesitation. They may still use the rituals of Catholicism to mark their happy and sad occasions, but apparently would sell their soul for a vote or a dollar. What does it benefit a person to gain the whole world but lose their soul (Mark 8:36), but eternal loss for the sake of public office in Illinois is an extraordinarily foolish deal with the devil. Such people certainly need our prayers, but they should no longer be able to take our friendship or our support for granted …

Even when our institutions are attacked and our most sacred beliefs held up for scorn, many Catholics sadly remain silent. As your Bishop, it is therefore my duty before God to call faithful Catholics into more assertive action in defense of our religion and those public ministries which we hold to be the work of Christ.

“Loyal believers are called upon not only to defend the Faith but even to defend the very concept of faith in the face of aggressive secularism and increasingly intolerant atheism,” Bishop Jenky concluded. “It now seems to be the unbelievers who apparently hope to initiate some new kind of inquisition designed to entirely exclude God from the public forum. In the face of growing hostility, practicing Catholics need to recognize that the choices we make and the witness we either offer or withhold will have both temporal and eternal consequences for each one of us. Christ the Lord has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church he founded on the rock of Peter’s faith (Matthew 16:1), but he also warned that at the end of time he will deny those who deny him (cf. Matthew 10:33).”

“Catholicism is filled with enormous spiritual richness, a cohesive intellectual tradition, and a remarkable commitment to charity and service. It is the Faith for which we should be ready and willing to give our hearts and even to offer up our lives. It is also the Faith by which we all certainly will be judged before the throne of Almighty God.”

TO BE READ OR PLACED IN THE BULLETIN AT ALL PARISHES IN THE DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH THIS WEEKEND, JANAUARY 28/29

2012-01-27T16:40:00.000-05:00

God bless our new bishop, Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM,Conv.

Letter from Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer
To Be Read at all Masses in Parishes in the Diocese of Savannah
During the Weekend of January 28 – 29, 2012

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I am writing to you on a matter of grave moral concern -- freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

In so ruling, the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

I stand in unity with Catholic bishops throughout the United States and other religious leaders vowing to fight this mandate.

Along with my brother bishops and other religious leaders, I insist that this is a direct attack on our religious freedom and our First Amendment rights. I will work with the bishops, other religious leaders and our fellow Americans to remove this unjust regulation.

If the Administration will not rescind this violation of our First Amendment rights, we must call on our elected leaders to do so. I ask you to pray that wisdom and justice may prevail, and work together to restore our religious liberty.

Please join me in continuing to follow the development of this important issue and contacting our elected representatives to seek a just resolution.

Through the Southern Cross, diocesan and Georgia Catholic Conference websites and other media, I will keep you up to date on the progress of this important issue.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
╬ Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv.
Bishop of Savannah

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

2012-01-27T15:10:00.000-05:00

CARDINAL-ELECT TIMOTHY DOLAN LAYS IT OUT AND CLEARLY! PRESS HERE TO READ IT FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

FOR MY TRADITIONAL FRIENDS OF THE LITURGY, BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU CRITICIZE

2012-01-27T10:59:00.001-05:00

I actually find this altar arrangment and the decorations of the place of worship for the NC Mass very beautiful and devotional and not at all a bad example of "post Vatican II theology" for church buildings and liturgical arrangements. I especially like the size of the altar and its powerful presence in this sanctuary and would note that the Benedictine Altar Arrangement would work marvelously on it because of its massive size:

And for those who despise Pope Paul VI for what they perceive he allowed to happen to the liturgy, please note what Fr. Neil Xavier O’Donoghue, Ph.D. in Liturgy writes to a commenter at the Praytell Blog:

Nicholas, I’m afraid I see openness to life and the renewal of the liturgy in the post-Vatican II period as going hand in hand. Both were primary concerns for Paul VI, and are the two issues that many Catholics today vilify him for (rarely for both, the left does not like Humanae Vitae and the right does not like the Ordinary Form of the liturgy). However it is precisely for the openness to life and the teaching on Family Morality that is imparted by the Neocatechumenal communities that Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University on behalf of the John Paul II Institute bestowed an honorary Doctorate on Kiko Arguello, the initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way in 2009.

YOU MAY READ FATHER O'DONOGHUE'S CRITIQUE OF A CRITIQUE OF THE NW BY PRESSING THIS! I'M IMPRESSED WITH His THEOLOGY AND WOULD AGREE WITH HIM, ESPECIALLY OUR COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY FATHER AND THE CHURCH BUT IN A VARIETY OF LITURGICAL EXPRESSIONS AND SUPPORTING THE HOLY FATHER ESPECIALLY THE TEACHINGS OF HUMANAE VITAE!

AS BUGS BUNNY WOULD SAY, "OF COURSE YOU KNOW THIS MEANS WAR" SPIRITUAL WAR THAT IS

2012-01-27T05:16:00.001-05:00

Pray that all bishops will have "backbone" during this time of assault on the Catholic Church

I've never seen our bishops as alarmed and as outspoken about the impending HHS mandate concerning all Catholic institutions being given a year to comply with providing contraception and abortion "care" in our health insurance policies. Fr. Dawid Kwiatkowski our parochial vicar, who is a Polish native and citizen, on hearing about this administration's attempt to interfere with the hiring practicing of the Catholic Church, which fortunately the Supreme Court rejected unanimously, and now the President's betrayal of Catholic leaders and all Catholics with his "one year to comply" mandate for this contraception "care" health insurance coverage, he said, "This president sounds like a communist Polish dictator." Of course they hated the Catholic Church too!

READ BISHOP DAVID ZUBIK'S OF PITTSBURGH LETTER TO HIS DIOCESE, "TO HELL WITH YOU! PRESS HERE"

AND FROM Bishop Alexander K. Sample OF THE DIOCESE OF MARQUETTE, A LETTER TO BE READ AT ALL MASSES IN HIS DIOCESE THIS SUNDAY! PRESS HERE.

PHOTOS OF THE NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY OF CELEBRATING MASS

2012-01-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

UPDATE WITH NEW PICTURES!!!!!!
Future Pope Benedict as then Cardinal Ratzinger celebrating a Neocathecumenal Way Mass!!!!!!

Pope John Paul II celebrating a "NEOCAT WAY" Mass!

The late Archbishop Sambi (papal nuncio) celebrates Mass for the Neocatechumenal Way, press here.

MUSIC, MUSZAC OR CHANT--THAT IS THE QUESTION

2012-01-26T11:34:00.001-05:00

The most contentious aspect of the modern liturgy is which style of music to use. Many who are in the know say that it is not appropriate to have music during the Mass that uses "religious words set to a secular style of melody." By this I think we would mean melodies that sound like bar music if you removed the words or Broadway style of singing musicals. There could be other examples too, but I think we could refer to melodies that are meant more for entertaining and listening, rather than worshiping and clearly associated with worship.

Technically the music of the Catholic Mass is not hymnody but rather the singing of all the parts of the Mass that should be sung. This would include the official Introit and Offertory and Communion chants. Normally these are meant to be sung in a "Gregorian Chant" style or some modification of it including Polyphony and in Latin or the vernacular in the OF Mass. But it includes almost every other part of the Mass from the Sign of the Cross to the Credo, Eucharistic Prayer and final Blessing. This would include the singing of the Scriptures and Gospel! How many have heard that happen in an OF Mass?

What should be sung is normally what is not sung but rather an undo emphasis on hymns. Keep in mind though that in the Low EF Mass four hymns can be sung even though not a word of the Mass is sung--Opening, Offertory, Communion and Recessional. In the old days these were hymns borrowed from popular devotions and most Marian hymns so the selections had little or nothing to do with the Mass and the themes of the Scriptures. This is an aberration in the Latin Low Mass, but accepted practice.

At least in the High or Sung Mass of the EF, all that is suppose to be sung is--but it is permissible to do additional anthem. Our practice of a vernacular processional and recessional may or may not have been done in Pre-Vatican II times for the High Mass, but I'm not certain and so what we do here may not be kosher. But certainly additional Latin anthems were always sung at the Offertory and Communion even though these are not prescribed.

But back to the OF Mass as experienced by most and what they hear today in their parishes. The emphasis is on hymns, isn't it? And even the parts of the Mass can be set to secular sounding melodies, but these are more difficult to judge as appropriate or inappropriate. And the sad fact is that so many options of styles of music are incorporated into the Mass no one really realizes that there should be a distinctive style that is a bit more narrow rather than expansive. Most new music or music that is sung today would be better used in non-Mass, non-Liturgical experiences of prayer and popular devotions.

It is also permissible and the norm now that the official chants at the entrance, offertory and communion are totally discarded and legally so and substituted with hymns. Sometimes these hymns are of dubious quality and theology and the appropriateness for Mass may well be questioned, just as one might question the use of exclusively Marian vernacular hymns at an EF low Mass.

At St. Joseph we know chant versions of all the parts of the Mass in the vernacular and two other more modern settings known as the Mass of Creation and The Mass of Sing Praise and Thanksgiving both of which are enthusiastically sung by our congregation. However liturgical purists would show disdain for these secular sounding settings of the Mass.

All our hymns are accompanied by organ and thus are "traditional" in that sense but from a wide variety of sources, pre-Vatican II vernacular hymns, Protestant hymns adapted for Catholic use and modern Catholic hymns.

For over a year though, our cantor chants the official Introit as the Procession begins and segways into the vernacular hymn and the same is true of the Offertory and Communion Antiphons.

We have yet to learn an English Creed, but the days are coming for even that at our choir Mass at 9:30 AM.

Like religion and politics, the style of music in our churches probably should not be debated in polite company.

DIFFERENT RITES, ONE CHURCH

2012-01-26T06:58:00.003-05:00

Now this is a reredos with noble simplicity!

This is a "fiddle back" vestment that really isn't, and it's not really Roman, can anyone spell Hispano-Mozarabic rite? Now those who want me to wear fiddle back, ante up and buy me this and I'll wear it!

THE CHALLENGES OF THE NEW ANGLICAN ORDINARIATE.In an interview with Catholic News Service, Father Jeffrey Steenson discussed the challenges he faces as the leader of the recently established Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. PUSH HERE TO READ ABOUT IT

LIKE CARDINAL-DESIGNATE TIMOTHY DOLAN, EVERY CATHOLIC SHOULD FEEL BETRAYED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA, READ MORE FROM THE USA-TODAY NEWSPAPER

2012-01-26T06:49:00.000-05:00

ARCHBISHOP DOLAN AND EVERY CATHOLIC BETRAYED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA, PUSH HERE TO READ USA TODAY ARTICLE

A GOOD QUESTION, SISTER MARY ANN WALSH; DOES ANYONE KNOW THE ANSWER?

2012-01-25T06:55:00.002-05:00

Two Roman (Roaming) Catholics deformed by the "spirit of Vatican II" catechesis and arrogance:

From Catholic World News: USCCB spokeswoman contrasts HHS treatment of Amish, Catholics
January 25, 2012

In requiring Catholic agencies to provide insurance that covers contraception and sterilization, the Department of Health and Human Services has created an anti-Catholic double standard, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ director of media relations.

“Health and Human Services’ recent attacks on freedom of religion show it is deaf to religious sensibilities,” said Sister Mary Ann Walsh. “Even the Administration’s resounding defeat on January 11—when the US Supreme Court unanimously rejected the Administration’s reading of the First Amendment as ‘extreme,’ ‘untenable,’ and having ‘no merit’—couldn’t unplug its ears.”

“This egregious violation of religious freedom marks the first time in our history that the federal government is forcing religious people and groups to ante up for services that violate their consciences,” she continued. “The government allows other religions to live out their beliefs. The Amish and Christian Scientists have a conscientious objection to health insurance, and so the law exempts them from buying it. The government acknowledges the right of these religious groups to live out their religious convictions in US society. Why are beliefs of Catholics and others dismissed?”

My Question: Has anyone heard or seen any news coverage on this rather significant story concerning the current political administration in Washington? I've only seen a brief segment on Fox and Friends and it was very much on the side of the Church.

THE GRAVITY OF OFFENDING GOD--DO WE CARE ANYMORE ABOUT THAT?

2012-01-24T15:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday as I preached at our Day of Penance Mass marking the anniversary of Roe V. Wade, I had to wonder if the people to whom I was preaching really give a flip about offending God. There were a goodly number of high school students at the Mass.

It seems to me we try to persuade people not to do wrong things because of the secular or emotional or physical consequences to certain action. We want abortion to be illegal and people punished if they break the law.

While all of these are good reasons to not only protect the innocent unborn and those who might choose an abortion or enable one, I still think we need to recover the sense of gravity and the solemn offense God takes when we commit grievous acts of evil and mortal sin. That alone should be sufficient motivation for Catholics and Christians to avoid evil and do good.

How do we recover the sense of sin, the fear of God we should have when offending Him through willful acts of sin and evil? Can we recover that, especially with our young?

WHERE HAVE WE GONE WRONG AND WHAT DO WE DO RIGHT?

2012-01-23T07:22:00.003-05:00

PRESS HERE FOR HUMANAE VITAE, A SUMMARY This brief article tells of three bishops conferences in the 1960's (Canadian, Dutch and German)who "tried" to "validly" give a dispensation to this natural law based upon "conscience." The article rebuffs that with the following:
"Catholic Insight's editor: Nota Bene
The “Winnipeg Statement” has no teaching value. Its dispensation is null and void because its authority is flawed.

Two things are necessary for a teaching by a Conference of Bishops to be valid: 1) unanimity of all bishops belonging to the Conference; 2) approval by Rome. (See “The theological and juridical nature of Episcopal conferences”, Apostolic Letter by His Holiness John Paul II, May 21, 1998).

Neither of these conditions was achieved. There was no unanimity – at least six bishops rejected the document. And approval from Rome was neither sought, nor given. The Canadian bishops of the time may be said to have ignored the need for both internal and external collegiality."

If we lived in a perfect world, everyone would read Pope Paul VI encyclical, Humanae Vitae, study it and after having studied it and looked at the world the 1960's produced (affected),we would stand up and cheer for the wisdom of the Holy Father in not giving into the dark forces of unbridled enthusiasm and what man could accomplish on his own through technology and fomenting social change, and go back to the basics in honoring God by being obedient to natural law, divine law and the Magisterium of the Church in the matter of faith and morals, even those teachings, while not always presented in an "infallible way" are nonetheless authoritative and normative for Catholics.

Basically what the Holy Father taught in Humanae Vitae is that natural law reveals divine law and that divine law in imprinted in the very order of creation. Therefore one must understand natural law and honor it and by doing so one honors God. This has ramification for a number of moral teaching, many now evolving in the Church, that pertain to the nature of man, what God has created and what are the limits to man's engineering that changes the moral other because it disregards natural law.

Human sexuality is more than just the pro-creative act. It is that force, if you will, that enables us to love, to go beyond ourselves, to show empathy. It is an energy that is natural and necessary for a holy and whole life.

Why then is genital sex only permitted within the context of marriage? Because there are two aspects to genital sex, erotic love which needs marriage to keep it tame and wholesome and where spouses in the enjoyment and love of one another give each other totally to the other. Does this get corrupted even in marriage? Certainly, a man can use is wife for what he could do perfectly well on his own--there is no love or self-giving only selfish release (and that is why doing it on one's own is considered sinful--it doesn't fulfill the high calling of physical sex--it is selfish). And certainly a wife could use her husband for the same purposes, although somehow I think this is more a man problem than a woman problem, but I could be wrong.

But that brings us to natural law, how the human body is constructed and why certain physical acts and substance contribute to the begetting of new life. Genital sex is also for pro-creation, no two ways about it, in fact the pleasurable aspect is meant to serve the pro-creative aspect since if a man or woman had no sexual desire there would be no pro-creation.

The significance of the married state and in a life-long marriage is to provide a stable environment that is also loving to rear children and teach them the ways of God and prepare them for God's world. Single parenthood while not impossible is not to be preferred to a father and mother in a stable relationship modeling the roles of each gender and teaching through example how to love.

Artificial birth control rules out a significant aspect of what genital sexuality is meant to be. It also turns sex into an athletic endeavor for personal gain and satisfaction. It becomes recreational. It becomes that which it was not intended to be when the power of procreation is made impotent through mechanical devices and medication. It changes the meaning of sex and offend natural law and thus offends God who created all that there is including human sexuality.

Now, if children are seen as a disease, if sex is a recreation and in the course of that recreation an injury occurs and a child is conceived, it only stand to reason that a medical intervention is needed to eliminate the injury--the poor, innocent child that has been conceived because it is natural to conceive during sexual intercourse since it is built into the very nature of the act (natural law).

Only when we honor natural law, use self-discipline to avoid sex outside of marriage, which is also a part of natural law, and view human sexuality as a gift from God to be honored in its very nature, (as God intended) then we will see children as a gift from God to be nurtured and supported and not as a disease that needs to be eradicated. And if a child is conceived that cannot be supported by his or her mother or father, then adoption is the only moral way to "take care of the problem." The problem though is not the child, but the parent or parents who cannot care for the child and for whatever reason.

This is a difficult sell to a world that hates natural law and political systems that despise it even more. But Humanae Vitae is normative for Catholics and its teachings, if embraced, would reduce the number of abortions that Catholics are having. We need to start at home in limiting abortions. It is already "illegal" in Church law, but that has not stopped some Catholics from having abortions. Not until God's law is written in our hearts and we embrace it as a natural part of who we are as Catholics will we return to the normal moral order that is written in natural law.

THE LARGEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE ECUMENICAL EVENT I'VE EXPERIENCED AS A PRIEST DURING THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

2012-01-22T17:42:00.002-05:00

Thus far, we estimate that over 2000 souls have come to see the floral arrangements put in place by the flower guilds of 13 churches in the Macon area. The arrangements are truly stunning and those coming through truly appreciative. What a great event for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity!

From WMAZ TV in Macon:

St. Jospeh Catholic Church hosted its First Annual Old City Flower Festival.

The public got a chance to view flower arrangements done by 14 churches in the Macon area and Warner Robins.

Elaine Schmitt, one of the coordinators of the event says this is a great way to express the love of God.

"People walk in the doors and stand for a minute and try to take it all in, and are just in awe of the beauty of the church," said Schmitt.

"Its overwhelming really to see all this beautiful color and the textures with the beauty of the whole sanctuary," said Brevard Hunt.

Schmitt says its important to have an event like the flower show to help bring the community together.

"Even though the different denominations might have different ideas still everyone has the commonality of loving Jesus and that commonality is what binds us together," said Schmitt.

This week is the start of "Prayer for Christian Unity" which began on January 19th and ends January 25th.

IS POPE BENEDICT "FOUNDING" A NEW FORM OF THE REFORMED MASS AND INSTITUTING IT OR IS HE "AFFECTING" THE FOUNDING OF A NEW FORM OF THE REFORMED MASS WHICH ANOTHER POPE WILL PROMULGATE SIMILAR TO WHAT VATICAN II AFFECTED AND PAUL VI PROMULGATED?

2012-01-22T06:08:00.002-05:00

Private Masses at the same time at multiple altars (no concelebration of one Mass)

Mount Calvary Catholic Church (Anglican Usage) former Episcopal Church becoming completely Catholic today, but celebrating the Anglican Use Mass, please note the altar, is this a sign of things to come for the Latin Rite? Also, correct me if I am wrong, but the name "Mount Calvary" must be a first in this country for a Catholic parish as one normally associates this name with Protestant Churches rather than Catholic--does anyone know of any Latin Rite Church in the USA or Canada named "Mount Calvary"?

Anglican Use Catholic Mass today:

As far as I can tell by the comments on this blog, there are here two schools of thought. The first is a very liberal reading of Summorum Pontificum which should force every parish where there is a stable group of parishioners wanting it to have the EF Mass each Sunday at a regularly scheduled time and to even make one of the previous OF Masses an EF Mass. The desire for this stems from a complete dissatisfaction with the OF Mass even when, as it is here, it is celebrated by the books, with all the options available for it and with dignity and solemnity, i.e. all parts sung, incense used and classical vestment and rehearsed "ministers" i.e. altar servers, lectors and EM's.

The second school which I embrace is to understand the allowance of the EF Mass as "extraordinary" meaning there should be a stable group of people who desire it. The question is how often depending on the number who "desire" it regularly. The compromise I have come up with is to provide it weekly on Tuesday as a Low Mass and once a month on Sunday as a High Mass, but at an additional time rather than replacing one of the four Sunday OF Masses. I've also allowed it for certain Holy Days of Obligation and for special occasions, such as The Commemoration of All Souls with a "Concert Mass setting" as well as our Patronal Feast Day of Saint Joseph on March 19th using the concert Mass of Schubert's "Mass in G". I have honored the request for weddings in the EF tradition having celebrated two thus far and Requiems if requested having celebrated one and baptisms in the EF having celebrated two. In other words I am happy to honor requests for the EF form of the Sacraments for Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals.

But a part of the second school of thought is what I believe Pope Benedict intended, in part, by allowing local priests to be able to celebrate the EF on a liberal basis, the mutual enrichment of both forms of the Mass as a two way street. In other words, the EF should not only affect the manner in which the OF Mass is celebrated in a more solemn and choreographed way by "saying the black and doing the red" but the EF should be affected by the manner in which the OF Mass is celebrated when done so properly, i.e Scriptures in English and facing the people, the priest a bit more relaxed and not robotic or rigid in movements (more flexibility in other words).

We can see the Holy Father bringing some of the EF influence to the OF once again--kneeling for Holy Communion and receiving on the tongue, flexibility in choosing vestments and daring to use the Roman style of vestments, insisting even outside of Rome that the preface and Eucharistic Prayer be prayed in Latin (that is new to this Pope and took place a couple of years into his papacy, at first he did pray the preface and Eucharistic prayer in the vernacular even in Rome). At Christmas he allowed the Responsorial Psalm to be sung in the Gradual Form of the EF Mass.

But keep in mind, he also prays the Mass in the vernacular for its other parts and even at St. Peter's when the event is more local, most of the Mass is in Italian. He uses all the Eucharistic Prayers, not just the Roman Canon, although these are prayed in Latin.

Since he has yet to celebrate publicly the EF Mass, we have no idea how he would bring OF sensibilities to it--time will tell if he will celebrate this Mass during his pontificate but not having done so thus far speaks volumes by its absence.

In other words the Holy Father while not "founding" a new form of the Mass is now "affecting" for a later pope to institute in a more formal way some of Pope Benedict's understanding of what a "reform of the reform" Liturgy should look like, feel and be celebrated and it is not a complete return to the EF Mass at all.

Time will tell. Just as we can't say that Jesus Christ founded the Church during His public ministry as we have it today (unless we do so from our faith perspective that He through the Pentecostal Holy Spirit, our Glorious and Risen Lord is always present guiding the Church in all ages through His Body, the Church which He "affected, establish, founded both implicitly and explicitly" during His public ministry)we can't say that Pope Benedict has founded a new Liturgy but he might well be affecting the founding of a new form of the OF Mass in the future.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF TRAITOROUS CATHOLICS IS WAGING WAR ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND THIS IS A SPIRITUAL BATTLE FOR CATHOLICS NOT UNLIKE PAGAN TIMES WITH IMPERIALISTIC GOVERNMENTS MANIPULATING THE CHURCH, BUT OBAMA HAS ALREADY LOST

2012-01-21T07:36:00.001-05:00

UPDATED: RETIRED CARDINAL ROGER MAHONEY OF LOS ANGELES ASKS CATHOLICS TO FIGHT THE ADMINISTRATION OF THEIR ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE, READ IT BY PRESSING HERE! THE GOOD CARDINAL CAN'T TELL US HOW TO VOTE FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, BUT HE CAN TELL US HOW HE IS VOTING AND HE MAKES IT CRYSTAL CLEAR AND I QUOTE: "As Bishops we do not recommend candidates for any elected office. My vote on November 6 will be for the candidate for President of the United States and members of Congress who intend to recognize the full spectrum of rights under the many conscience clauses of morality and public policy. If any candidate refuses to acknowledge and to promote those rights, then that candidate will not receive my vote.

This is a sad moment in the life of our country where religious freedom and freedom of conscience led to the formation of this new Nation under God."

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan on HHS Conscience Regulation from Rocco Palmo on Vimeo.

U.S. BISHOPS VOW TO FIGHT HHS EDICT
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:57:45 +0000
DATE: January 20, 2012
FROM: Sr. Mary Ann Walsh

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. BISHOPS VOW TO FIGHT HHS EDICT

Unconscionable to force citizens to buy contraceptives against their will

No change in limited exemption, only delay in enforcement

Matter of freedom of conscience, freedom of religion

WASHINGTON—The Catholic bishops of the United States called “literally unconscionable” a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans. Today’s announcement means that this mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change at all; instead there will only be a delay in enforcement against some employers.

“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The cardinal-designate continued, “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty."

The HHS rule requires that sterilization and contraception – including controversial abortifacients – be included among “preventive services” coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans. “The government should not force Americans to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs,” added Cardinal-designate Dolan.

At issue, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders insist, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for the conscience of Catholics and all other Americans.

“This is nothing less than a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights,” said Franciscan Sister Jane Marie Klein, chairperson of the board at Franciscan Alliance, Inc., a system of 13 Catholic hospitals. “I have hundreds of employees who will be upset and confused by this edict. I cannot understand it at all.”

Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, voiced disappointment with the decision. Catholic hospitals serve one out of six people who seek hospital care annually.

“This was a missed opportunity to be clear on appropriate conscience protection,” Sister Keehan said.

Cardinal-designate Dolan urged that the HHS mandate be overturned.

“The Obama administration has now drawn an unprecedented line in the sand,” he said. “The Catholic bishops are committed to working with our fellow Americans to reform the law and change this unjust regulation. We will continue to study all the implications of this troubling decision.”

SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH'S WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY, OLD CITY FLOWER FESTIVAL, MAKES THE FRONT PAGE OF THE MACON TELEGRAPH!

2012-01-21T07:18:00.000-05:00

You can read the front page article on THE OLD CITY FLOWER FESTIVAL in the Macon Telegraph by pressing this sentence. The pictures below are more that I took with my iPhone in dim lighting. I'm sure there will be some professional pictures that I can post later.

TO STIR THE EF POT AND CONTROVERSY EVEN MORE, READ THIS

2012-01-20T07:02:00.000-05:00

The sole purpose of a "Reform of the reform" (Copied from the Rorate Caeli Blog, my comments below it)
From the interview granted by Prof. Roberto de Mattei, author of Il Concilio Vaticano II: una storia mai scritta (The Second Vatican Council – a never before written history), to Austrian Catholic website Kath.net:

[Kath.net]There is no renewal of the Church without a true liturgical renewal. What is the meaning, in your view, of the liturgy in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite which, with the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, once again enjoys full right of citizenship in the Church? Is it truly "a twofold use of the save and only Rite" (Benedict XVI, Letter on the publication of "Summorum Pontificum", July 7, 2007) or should the "form" that today is "ordinary" be considered a "phase" of that return to the origins in which the true future is found?

[De Mattei] The Holy Sacrifice is truly one, but the "Novus ordo" of Paul VI is, it seems to me, profoundly different, in spirit and in form, from the ancient Roman Rite. In this last Rite, I see not the past, but the future of the Church. Traditional liturgy is in fact the most efficacious response to the challenge of secularism, that attacks us.

Benedict XVI gave full citizenship back to the ancient Roman Rite. I am certain that it will go through a new development and a new splendor in the Church and in society. The "Reform of the Reform" which is mentioned makes sense and is worthy only as a "transition" of the "novus ordo" towards the traditional rite, and not as a pretext for the abandonment of the latter, that must be kept in its integrity and purity.

The essential question seems to me, though, that of recovering a theological and ecclesiological vision founded upon the dimension of transcendent and the holy. This means that it is necessary to reconquer the fundamental principles of Catholic theology, beginning with a precise view of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

It is further necessary that the idea of sacrifice shall permeate society in the shape, quite forgotten today, of a spirit of sacrifice and penance. This, and not anything else, is the "experience of sacredness" of which our society has urgent need. Without it, it is hard to imagine a return to an authentic Liturgy that has at its center the adoration owed to the one true God.

PRESS THIS TO READ FROM THE BLOG CHIESA ON "BENEDICT THE REFORMER" FOR A DIFFERENT SLANT ON ALL OF THIS AND THE CAMP THAT I WOULD MOST LIKELY ENDORSE, SINCE I'M A PAPIST AND ULTRAMONTANE!

MY COMMENTS: "The correct understanding of the Council – the instructions for the Year of Faith specify – is not what is called the "hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture," but what Benedict XVI has called "the hermeneutic of reform, of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church."

The Catholic Church prior to the Second Vatican Council was in need of reform and updating as it confronted and ministered to a very different world than that of the period of the Council of Trent which had dramatically shaped the Catholic Church of the 500 year period, in addition to the Church's reaction to the Protestant Reformation and anti-Catholic ideologies.

But what many now say the Second Vatican Council never intended is what has led to an even more urgent reform of the Post Vatican II Church but again going back to the Council of Trent, The First Vatican Council and yes, and most importantly The Second Vatican Council.

In reality the "Spirit of the Second Vatican Council" a spirit of rupture with the past not only in liturgy, but in the understanding of the Catholic Church herself, her priesthood, her laity and her spirituality and piety that flowed from a Catholic Culture that in many ways was universal in all the Catholic world although with variation in piety and devotions, was totally dismantled, torn down and only a remnant of her former self remained.

There has been rebuilding to be sure, but the new edifice is a shadow of her former self and glory.

One of the things that reformers lambasted about the Pre-Vatican II Church was her triumphalism. That may have been true, but it evolved from a very high Christology and the worship due to Christ and our unworthiness in His presence that led to silence in Churches, and a humble piety that was self-deprecating. All that changed with the 1960's and a jamboree attitude toward the Church, the Liturgy and her devotions and spirituality.

As well the great discipline of the Church in terms of prayer, fasting and almsgiving was nearly tossed out the window. Gone were meatless Fridays, Ember Days and a rigid Lenten season that only the strong could survive. Gone were indulgences, harsh penances and a strict Catholic piety at home, the praying of the Rosary was ridiculed as were all other devotions. The Mass became a mere shadow of its former self and church buildings were raped and reconfigured according to a flimsy theology and new churches looked cold and empty.

All this must be reformed and older and more time-tested forms of Mass and spirituality must be recovered and is being recovered, but it will take another 50 years or more.

THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY AT SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH IN MACON

2012-01-20T05:27:00.001-05:00

A photo I just took and this is all flowers, like a carpet! You have to see what is being done--WOW!

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began on Wednesday, January 18th and concludes on the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on Wednesday, January 25th. Saint Joseph Church in Macon has two grand ecumenical events to mark this occasion, one a miracle similar to the parting of the Red Sea.

The first event was event was on Thursday and a part of our Third Thursday Organ Interlude at 12 noon. Mr. Robert McCormick a Macon native and organist in Washington, DC perform a wonderful half hour organ recital which concluded with an "off the cuff" improvisation of two hymns suggested to him on the spot. What he did with these two hymns was truly remarkable. One of the hymns was "God's Blessing Sends Us Forth" and the other "I Heard the Voice of Jesus." He played both at first almost as single notes then molded them into an improvisation that actually brought tears to my eyes. It was fantastic.

There were almost 200 in the congregation and from churches all over Macon. The concert was followed by a luncheon in our social hall. We began the organ concert with a short ecumenical prayer which included the recitation of the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer and one of the new Collects for Christian Unity from our revised English Roman Missal.

The other ecumenical event is a miracle similar to the parting of the Red Sea. Last year Elaine Schmidt and Steve Gonser both of whom coordinate the decoration of our church suggested to me that we host the very first "Old City Flower Festival." What they would do is to contact as many of the downtown Macon churches and invite them to create a floral arrangement that would be placed in various areas of our church.

I asked them, you're going to ask Protestant churches in town to come and decorate our church with flowers? I said good luck, thinking who in the world would participate. I thought it would take a miracle like that of the parting of the Red Sea. Well, the parting has taken place and the Protestants are rushing through to St. Joseph Church and placing their floral arrangements all over the place. It will be completed by Saturday, the 21st and remain until Wednesday the concluding day of the Prayer for Christian Unity.

These are the churches who are participating and the flower arrangements thus far are stunning. I'll post pictures when I get them:

1. Saint Joseph Church
2. Mulberry Street United Methodist Church
3. Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church
4. St. Paul's Episcopal Church
5. St. Peter Claver Catholic Church
6. The First Presbyterian Church
7. Vineville United Methodist Church
8. Christ Church Episcopal
9. Sacred Heart Catholic Church
10. The First Baptist Church, New Street
11. Washington Avenue Presbyterian Church
12. Vineville Baptist Church
13. The First Baptist Church of Christ, High Street at Poplar

All I can say is WOW!

FROM A SECRET THEOLGIAN?

2012-01-19T18:44:00.001-05:00

The following is a four-part comment from the post I have below, "THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS MUST BE APPRECIATED AS THE NORMAL, ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS" from an anonymous writer and is self explanatory. I think it was well written and very thoughtful and deserved to be posted as a regular post. Who is this mystery writer anyway?

This will be a long reply to Pater Ignotus’s post reading “Marc--The Traditional Mass is offered every day in Catholic parishes.” So long, in fact, that I have to break it into four parts.

We have seen this disagreement over terms before. I would like to provide my take on the nature of a disagreement in the hopes that in the future we can have more in the way of good-faith dialogue here and less sniping, in keeping with the wishes expressed by Fr. McD in this blog entry.

Traditio, of course, means “that which is handed on.” And what was handed on from the Latin Mass to the NO Mass? Quantitatively, most things were _not_ handed on: Latin, the silent participation of the laity, the sanctuary and functions related thereto as the exclusive province of the clergy, Gregorian chant, reception on the tongue, kneeling for reception, ad orientum, reception under one kind, the strong emphasis on vertical sacrifice, the very light (if any) emphasis on the horizontal meal, and a bunch of other stuff. (I will not discuss here the irreverence and the liberties taken by many clergy—I will accept arguendo that they are perversions of what was supposed to be, although I _would_ argue that the NO has propagated those things more than the EF does/did.)

So what _was_ handed on? What is it in the NO that is also in the EF that continues to make the NO a valid Mass? Note that even the words of consecration—the very liturgical core of the Mass--were changed—for you and for _all_--pro omnes, not pro multis. So on first—and even on second—inspection, it seems that precious little got “traditio’ed,” if you will. The celebration by a priest and the use of wine and unleavened bread sometimes seems to be just about all that made it unscathed.

With this as background, then, there are three possibilities:

1) The NO mass is valid based on the dictates of reason—its adoption was inherently reasonable. But given all the aforementioned changes—more and faster change that has ever been seen in 2000 years of Catholic history, making this situation unique--reason by no means dictates this conclusion. Reason becomes even shakier when the parallels between the NO and Protestant liturgies are so obvious. Catholic history is full of examples of heretical ideas infecting the Church and even being accepted by large numbers of bishops before being stamped out. Is there a truly ironclad, unassailable reason why this _cannot_ be the case today? Especially since the Church has just issued corrections to the English NO? Anyone who says that there is such a reason, I submit, is guilty of hubris, of a sort of snobbish temporal provincialism that says “Our generation is smarter and knows better than any other generation that has ever lived.”

2) The NO Mass is valid because of its continuity with earlier forms of the Mass that were/are valid. Again, given all the aforementioned differences, very little continuity is apparent. The claim that the essentials were retained, to my ear, sounds disturbingly like the usual Protestant/Modernist least common denominator argument: “You may be Catholic and I may be Protestant, but at least we agree on the fundamentals.” No, Mr. Protestant, we don’t. You threw out fundamentals, and claimed what you threw out weren’t fundamentals. I repeat: In the NO even the words of consecration were changed. That’s pretty gosh-darned fundamental.

3) The NO Mass is valid because the Church says it is. But why does the Church say it is? Could the Church go still further and have a deacon(ess) celebrate Mass and still declare it to be valid? Could it change the elements to coke and potato chips and change (even more than it already did) the words of consecration—e.g., “This is my Frisbee that shall be thrown for you”--and still declare the Mass to be valid? Perhaps so. But in that case it would be a matter of naked authority—potestas, not auctoritas--unsupported by reason or history. _This_ is the reasoned fear of many pro-EF people today: that the adoption of the NO Mass, and the changes within it, were unprincipled, supported by neither reason or history but only by potestas. AKA, the Emperor’s clothes.

People who know their liturgy and their church history and their theology can make some very persuasive arguments on this point (i.e., it’s valid not because of continuity or reason but because of a declaration by the Church that it is valid—and this declaration seems in fact to _contravene_, at least to a degree, both history and reason). Since the Church herself has made, in recent decades, a big deal about giving reasoned arguments for why it does things (look at the long pastoral explications in the Vatican II documents, compared to the flat assertions common in earlier councils), the sudden reversion to “shut up and obey” is incongruous, and even gives the impression of duplicity, or at the very least that the hierarchy has something to hide—that the emperor has been caught naked.

In fact, the Church herself opened the can of worms called public opinion. She made changes—forced great changes—on the laity and gave reasons for the changes. Now, when people reply in the mode she herself chose—i.e., through reasoned argument—and when their reason is at least as sound as hers, she suddenly eschews reason for potestas.

The proponents of the EF are often vocal. Sometimes they are argumentative and intransigent (e.g., “The EF is the only true Mass.”) But I think it needs to be realized that folks who talk this way are often—indeed, usually—doing so because they are confused and even fearful at all the ill-explained, ill-advised changes of the last 40 years. As Edmund Burke noted, three ways to upset people are to mess with their system of government, their money, and their religion. By any imaginable standard, the post-Vatican II church in America messed big time with people’s religion—whether for good or for ill is irrelevant.

The NO Mass, with its defects—defects explicitly recognized by the Church in its promulgation of the corrected English translation—was forced onto the laity, who in very large measure neither desired nor were consulted about the changes. Yet, the general tone of most clergy in America today, when asked for more EF Masses, often give as a reason for their refusal that the laity, when implicitly “consulted,” don’t desire to swap NO attendance for EF attendance. The double standard is obvious.

I think that the vast majority of faithful Catholics who prefer the EF nevertheless accept the validity of the NO. (Those who don’t probably left their parishes long ago for FSSP or SSPX or some other such group.) But they do often feel slighted and condescended to, even—perhaps especially—when they can back up their position with very solid arguments in the form of reason, magisterial documents, and liturgical and Church history. In short: they speak out of fear. Being dismissed, or worse, sneered at, isn’t going to do anything to calm those fears. Again: the clergy should respect that these people, for the most part, are going to be the most faithful Catholics that they’ll ever see. Surely that is worth some degree of respect and honest attempt at dialogue, if nothing else. And dialogue, as a mutual search for the truth as opposed to scoring points off the other side, means a willingness of both sides to accept correction and even to change positions.

In short, Pater Ignotus, just waving a magic wand and uncritically calling the NO a “traditional” Mass ignores common sense, reason, history, and the emotional and pastoral needs of some Catholics who are very upset at changes that can appear to be—and perhaps are—simply unprincipled. And belittling them for their small numbers is bad too—Jesus never made this a numbers game (good shepherd, one lost sheep, etc.). and finally, remember that it cuts both ways: if the NO is just as good as the EF, then the EF is just as good as the NO, right? Why all the objection, then, to more EFs?

Respectfully submitted.

January 19, 2012 12:09 PM

I AM CLAIRVOYANT AFTER ALL! ANOTHER MISSAL TO REPLACE BOTH THE 1962 MISSAL AND THE 2010 MISSAL, BUT WHEN O, LORD?

2012-01-19T15:47:00.001-05:00

I think I must have posted this way back in May when it was printed by Catholic News Service on May 14, 2011,but I can't remember, so I'm not only clairvoyant but also amnesiac. Go figure!

Cardinal Says Pope is Launching Liturgical Reform Movement

Surprising news, or at least surprisingly blunt news, from CNS:

Pope's 'reform of the reform' in liturgy to continue, cardinal says
Catholic News Service

By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's easing of restrictions on use of the 1962 Roman Missal, known as the Tridentine rite, is just the first step in a "reform of the reform" in liturgy, the Vatican's top ecumenist said.

The pope's long-term aim is not simply to allow the old and new rites to coexist, but to move toward a "common rite" that is shaped by the mutual enrichment of the two Mass forms, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said May 14.

In effect, the pope is launching a new liturgical reform movement, the cardinal said. Those who resist it, including "rigid" progressives, mistakenly view the Second Vatican Council as a rupture with the church's liturgical tradition, he said.

Cardinal Koch made the remarks at a Rome conference on "Summorum Pontificum," Pope Benedict's 2007 apostolic letter that offered wider latitude for use of the Tridentine rite. The cardinal's text was published the same day by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

Cardinal Koch said Pope Benedict thinks the post-Vatican II liturgical changes have brought "many positive fruits" but also problems, including a focus on purely practical matters and a neglect of the paschal mystery in the Eucharistic celebration. The cardinal said it was legitimate to ask whether liturgical innovators had intentionally gone beyond the council's stated intentions.

He said this explains why Pope Benedict has introduced a new reform movement, beginning with "Summorum Pontificum." The aim, he said, is to revisit Vatican II's teachings in liturgy and strengthen certain elements, including the Christological and sacrificial dimensions of the Mass.

Cardinal Koch said "Summorum Pontificum" is "only the beginning of this new liturgical movement."

"In fact, Pope Benedict knows well that, in the long term, we cannot stop at a coexistence between the ordinary form and the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, but that in the future the church naturally will once again need a common rite," he said.

"However, because a new liturgical reform cannot be decided theoretically, but requires a process of growth and purification, the pope for the moment is underlining above all that the two forms of the Roman rite can and should enrich each other," he said.

Cardinal Koch said those who oppose this new reform movement and see it as a step back from Vatican II lack a proper understanding of the post-Vatican II liturgical changes. As the pope has emphasized, Vatican II was not a break or rupture with tradition but part of an organic process of growth, he said.

On the final day of the conference, participants attended a Mass celebrated according to the Tridentine rite at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica. Cardinal Walter Brandmuller presided over the liturgy. It was the first time in several decades that the old rite was celebrated at the altar. --CNS

MY COMMENT: NOW I ASK YOU, AM I A PROPHET OR WHAT?

THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS MUST BE APPRECIATED AS THE NORMAL, ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS

2012-01-18T14:21:00.001-05:00

It is true that there have been exaggerations and at times social aspects unduly linked to the attitude of the faithful attached to the ancient Latin liturgical tradition. the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching: new Saints and some of the new Prefaces can and should be inserted in the old Missal. The readings may be in the vernacular in the ancient Latin Tradition. The celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI will be able to demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage. The most sure guarantee that the Missal of Paul VI can unite parish communities and be loved by them consists in its being celebrated with great reverence in harmony with the liturgical directives. This will bring out the spiritual richness and the theological depth of this Missal.

No matter how much one is attached to the EF Mass, the OF Mass is the norm, the EF is, well, extraordinary. How do parishes and their pastors guarantee that the OF Mass unites the parish and is loved in its being celebrated with great reverence in harmony with the Liturgical directive?

I'm a practical person and I despise people inserting their "feelings" into what should be allowed, or their personal likes and dislikes. The Roman Missal both of 1962 and 2010 do not lend themselves to feelings but give practical norms, instructions and rubrics for the celebration of the Mass.

Some dislike Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, yet these are allowed and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal clearly allows Communion under both kinds in the 2010 missal, although this is not the case with the 1962 missal. So one would have to take their personal preference concerning this off the table in both forms of the Mass and appreciate both forms for the criteria that is present.

The Holy Father and the bishops in union with him are the pastors of the Catholic Church and they model the way the liturgy should or may be celebrated including all the legitimate options. I can count on on hand, maybe one finger a bishop that celebrates the OF Mass ad orientem and allows his priests this option as a matter of fact. The vast majority of bishops, including the Holy Father, celebrate Mass facing the people and only rarely ad orientem.

One might like ad orientem more, but there is no basis to mandate this when the practice today is to face the people and this is legitimately approved by the Holy Father and the bishops in union with him.

In terms of the new translation of the English Mass, I know of no bishop, not even the pope, who will celebrate the previous translation. To request the old when the new is now the norm would be foolish. But maybe another pope one day will allow the older English for a stable group attached to it and say that it was "never in principle abrogated." Who knows?

But all of this is to say that we follow legitimate authority in celebrating the Mass and should be very careful not to denigrate either form of the Mass although we might have personal tastes and prefrences.

THE HELP--THE OLD SOUTH'S ODD SEPERATE BUT EQUAL AND INTEGRATED BUT UNEQUAL RECENT PAST

2012-01-18T05:32:00.002-05:00

I watched the movie "The Help" on Monday; it is a must see for all southerners a little bit young than me and older than me who grew up in the period of this movie. While the setting was Jackson, MS the scenery, ranch style home and countryside could have been in Atlanta, Augusta, Macon or any other southern town. And the story told would have been the same.

I hope everyone who saw the pie scene understood its connection with the desire to have in homes where maids worked in the south a restroom that was separate for them and the anxiety that was caused if the "help" used the boss's restroom in the home. The rectory in my former parish in Augusta which was a 1950's ranch style house (which I had torn down about 10 years ago) had a separate toilet in the utility room with the washer and dryer (not heated or cooled) off the carport which could only be accessed by going outside using the kitchen door.

I'm old enough to remember segregation, separate counters for eating at Woolworth's and others places,seperate restrooms, water fountains and places of business, and blacks sitting at the back of the bus. I rode the bus in Augusta frequently as a child and was told by a bus driver when my friend and I on the way home from a downtown movie sat on the long seat at the very back of an empty bus that "ya'll must be "niggers" sitting back there!" I must have been 10 or 11 and yes my parents and my friends' parents allowed us to go downtown on the bus by ourselves! It was another time in many ways! And the buses at that time were exactly like the ones used in the movie! Oh what memories, good and bad! It was the best of times and it was the worst of times to say the least.

Another time, and this was in Atlanta, my mother, her friend and I (I was about 4) took the bus downtown with my mother's friend's maid. We sat at the last seat for the whites and the maid in the first seat for the "Negroes" so that they could converse. The bus driver stopped the bus when he noticed the conversation and made them stop talking to one another. This was around 1957 and there was a lot a fear amongst whites concerning Negroes uppity behavior in buses--think Birmingham and Rosa Parks only two years earlier!

Our family didn't have "help" (my Italian mother was the "help" and that's a novel in itself!) but we knew plenty of families that did and I have friends today who identify with being "reared" by the "help" as was depicted in the movie. Southerns were integrated with blacks; they lived in our homes, prepared our meals, reared our children,took care of us when we were sick and drunk but they were not equal. But there was love in a twisted sort of way for each other. The movie captures that sentiment too! Early on in my ministry when I was at predominantly black St. Peter Claver Church here in Macon as a deacon, I went to many black funerals in black Baptist, Pentecostal, AME and CME Churches and found whites there grieving the most over their beloved "help" who had passed! The movie captures that too.

This movie is a must see whether you are my age and live in the south or not.

THE CAPTAIN ABANDONED THE SHIP AND IS READ THE RIOT ACT, HEAR IT IN REAL TIME!

2012-01-18T05:12:00.002-05:00

This is a rather dramatic conversation in Italian between the head of the Coast Guard in Livorno,(Leghorn) Italy, my mother's hometown and the derelict captain of the ship that capsized. I've heard that tone of voice before! The Coast Guard captain on the left speaks my mom's type of Italian. I've heard those explicatives before too!

THERE ARE FEW ACTORS TODAY WHO WITNESS TO THEIR CATHOLIC FAITH, BUT THIS ONE IS TRYING TO DO SO!

2012-01-17T16:23:00.002-05:00

I also saw him on the CBS Morning Show and he spoke about going to Mass regularly and doing his homework to prepare for the new translation of the English Mass!

USING ONE'S WHOLE BODY IN THE MASS AND INCULTURATION

2012-01-17T14:48:00.001-05:00

St. Joseph Church has a new associate pastor (parochial vicar)Fr. Godfred Boachie-Yiadom from Ghana, West Africa. He should be with us for three years. His style of Liturgy at least here at St. Joseph is very western and he loves the solemnity of the manner in which we celebrate the Mass. I had a conversation with him about the style of Mass in Ghana. He said that a Sunday Mass could last up to three hours or more. There is much more singing and taking one's time with the Liturgy. Time stands still.

He also spoke of the resistance to inculturation, bringing some of the culture of Ghana or West Africa into the Roman Liturgy. However, with time this has changed and the Church is booming and liturgies are packed; vocations are strong! This video gives some insights into what has transpired there:

Peter Kwesi Sarpong, Ghana--Pioneer in making church African. from james ault on Vimeo.

AT SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH IN MACON, THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS HAS ALWAYS BEEN CELEBRATED AD ORIENTEM! THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS HAS ALWAYS BEEN CELEBRATED AD OCCIDENS "WESTERN"!

2012-01-16T06:39:00.001-05:00

The great basilicas of Rome like Saint Joseph Church in Macon have the celebrant of Mass facing the geographical east which means that the altar faces the nave of the Church and the people who are gathered there so that the Mass is both Ad Orientem and Ad Populum (facing east and facing the people) at the very same time.

At Saint Joseph Church the reform of the Mass after Vatican II allowed the parish to revert to the early tradition of facing the geographical east or ad orientem and at the same time face the people.

In the pre-Vatican II missal, the Mass at Saint Joseph Church was not facing the geographical east but the west and thus Mass had to be celebrated with the priest's back to the people what would be called "ad occidens." Fortunately after Vatican II we were able to recover ad orientem worship at St. Joseph Church in Macon.

Mass at Saint Joseph Church in Macon facing the geographical west (ad occidens) away from God! (Currently this unusual way of facing away from God who will return from the east, only occurs during the EF Mass at St. Joseph)

Mass at Saint Joseph facing God who will return from the geographical East, this form currently is celebrated only with the Ordinary Form of the Mass at St. Joseph Church in Macon!

I am personally grateful that we are able to celebrate Mass at Saint Joseph Church towards the East for the Ordinary Form of the Mass. Maybe one day I will find the courage to celebrate the EF Mass at St. Joseph Church Ad Orientem too! Time will tell!

MARRIAGE EQUALITY?

2012-01-16T06:02:00.001-05:00

When I read this article on MARRIAGE EQUALITY, I thought at first it was written by a very conservative Catholic who disagreed with the bishops of Washington State who were using secular arguments against same sex marriage rather than religious arguments. Then I realized that the writer was mocking the bishops stand on heterosexual marriage and would have done so whether or not the arguments were secular or religious. It is just more Catholic bashing and bigotry but politically correct bashing and bigotry, the kind that political and religious liberals like.

I think bishops and all Catholics have to use reason to promote the Church's understanding of marriage which has also been secular society's understanding of marriage for thousands of years. I don't think secularists are going to be persuaded by religious arguments and what God wants or what God's laws are. But they might be persuaded by secular logic if that secular logic is good. I think a combination of both are necessary.

However within Church settings, Catholic bishops, priests and deacons should not use only secular arguments but the full force of the faith and morals of the Church including divine law revealed in natural law and Scripture as well as the Tradition of the Church. If that doesn't convince Catholics, then we have a whole set of other problems, the loss of Catholic identity and the secularization of Catholics in the pews, what one might call their being "born again" not as Catholics but as heathens. That's a problem, boys and girls!

We might not be successful in this spiritual battle with secularists who wish to remove God from the public square to promote their twisted vision of utopia, but we are called as Catholics, both clergy and laity, to be faithful to God and His Holy Church and avoid utopian ideologies at all costs. The dictatorship of secularism is promoting marriage utopia as they once promoted communism as utopia and fascism as utopia. Obedience to God and Church anyone?

CONTINUITY CAN BE GOOD AND I CAN PREDICT THE LITURGICAL FUTURE!

2012-01-16T05:27:00.003-05:00

Just to be clear, I like the reform of our calendar and the classification of solemnities, feasts, Memorials with a capital "M" and memorials with a little "m". The Roman Missal after Vatican II has a greater variety of prayers and a fabulous daily Mass lectionary. There is almost no lectionary for daily Mass in the EF Mass. There are very few Masses in the EF Missal. While one may like the EF Mass's order, the OF Missal is far richer than the 1962 missal in the variety of prayers and Masses offered; in fact there is no comparison.

As well, when there is no particular feast to be celebrated in the OF Mass one can either used the prayers for Sunday or some other Mass that ties into the readings of the Mass for that day. This is not the case in the EF Mass. If there is no particular feast on any given day, one uses the readings and prayers of the previous Sunday although there are a few votive Masses the priest could choose.

Now what I don't like about our current calendar is the term used for "Ordinary Time" and the elimination of the three pre-Lenten Sundays and the loss of ember days. I am also sorry that the week before Holy Week is no longer called Passion Week although the Passion Prefaces are used the last two weeks of Lent and technically it is still there but not called such.

The cycle of the year above captures very well the intent of the calendar even the reformed calendar and it could easily be adapted for the reformed calendar. We are in the Sundays after Epiphany now and after Pentecost, wIll be in the Sundays after Pentecost. While it is a mouthful, one could still say Ordinary Time after Epiphany and Ordinary Time after Pentecost with the post-Vatican II calendar. Liturgical Time after Epiphany or Liturgical Time after Pentecost anyone? Or how about Time after Epiphany or Time after Pentecost? Or how about Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Pentecost?

One would hope that any future reform of the Roman Missal would reform the calendar slightly to bring back the three Sunday pre-Lenten season, ember days and the designation of the Time after Epiphany and Time after Pentecost. It would be wise also to return the Octave of Pentecost to the calendar, for some strange reason it was eliminated in the reform.

And as you know I am clairvoyant but maybe not, but I predict that the future reform of the Missal will bring us back to only one Roman Missal for the Mass in the Latin Rite and it will be the current 2010 Missal with two forms of its order, the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form with either form celebrated in Latin or the vernacular or a combination of both. Of course this new missal would adjust the calendar as I have suggested. The reformed lectionary will continue with a year "D" which will be the pre-Vatican II lectionary for Sundays.

IS GOD CONFOUNDING THE SPIRIT OF MERE MORTALS?

2012-01-15T05:57:00.001-05:00

THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE OF CONTINUITY VERSES DISCONTINUITY IN THE CHURCH RAGES ON

The Second Vatican Council didn't happen out of capriciousness. The ground work had been laid beginning with the First Vatican Council in the 1870's. It's work was not completed.

But as the 20th century began, there was a great deal of liturgical foment going on in different countries trying to make the Mass more accessible to the laity, more comprehensible and more actively participative in the external forum. There was also a move to make the spiritual, contemplative aspects of the Mass more participative. The laity were encouraged to follow the Mass and the priest; missals were developed for this. No longer were the laity ignored in their homemade spiritualities during Mass, such as praying the Holy Rosary or other devotions while the priest and the altar boys did what was inaccessible to the congregation.

There was a call for active participation in the Mass, not in private devotions. There was also a call for the Mass to be celebrated facing the people so they could see where the priest was at any given time rather than having bells to remind those who were focused on the Mass rather than they prayer beads.

There were other things going on too. The Church in Europe was examining its history and Christians, both Catholic and Protestant were wondering how in the world Christians could participate in the Holocaust and support dictators like Mussolini and Hitler, just to name a few. How can so-called Catholic countries in Europe and Central and South America support right-wing dictatorships that suppress human dignity? How can Catholics in the USA support Roe V. Wade and pro-choice politicians without a blink of the eye?

The Second Vatican Council set forth a marvelous vision for the Church but gave few practicalities and no admonitions about the right or wrong way to implement that vision. I would suspect that very few bishops at the Second Vatican Council would foresee a collapse in the authoritative way in which teachings of the Church were received by clergy and laity and that clergy and laity would make it up as they go.

There are many symbols of the collapse of Catholic identity. The first was the manner in which the reform of the Mass occurred. What started as a reform in continuity, even with the 1970 Roman Missal, simply became the "yeast" that caused the Mass to become something altogether different than the 1962 missal, especially in its implementation on the local level. This came about not by following the rubrics of the 1970 missal but by local priests and congregations, not to mention bishops, dismissing the rubrics and creating liturgies of their own with only a broad outline of the 1970 Roman Missal. We are in a the process of recovering what the Mass should be; but much work yet needs to be done.

Two other important events crumpled the vision of the Second Vatican Council and turned it into something that was not intended by the Council Fathers. The loss of priestly identity occurred rather quickly once the Mass was changed and priests no longer found their cultic ministry to be important. More important was being a social worker and identifying with the laity. Priestly spirituality rooted in the monastic tradition of cult and prayer as well as a regimented daily prayer routine were thrown out the window, not reformed for modern practicalities but discarded.

Religious life also was discarded for something altogether different, so different in fact that it never caught the imagination of the laity but only of those in religious life at the time who had grown tired of the true and tested and began to prefer the novel and radical. This has led to the diminution of Religious Orders, the collapse of many and what some fear as an extinction of religious life in the Church. This has led to the decline in Catholic education and hospitals and social ministries.

For both religious life and the priesthood, the promises or vows of obedience, celibacy/chastity as well as poverty or Gospel simplicity were redefined in a way that made these promises the antithesis of what they once were, almost polar opposites and many who promoted this "break" did so with a straight face.

Finally the loss of Catholic identity amongst the laity has been staggering. In many places only 20 to 25% of Catholics attend Mass on Sunday and fewer celebrate the other sacraments of the Church including Penance and Holy Matrimony.

Amidst all the confusion there are those pushing for a Catholic Church that is far more Protestant than most mainline Protestant Churches are. They are pushing for a Catholic Church that looks, smells and feels like the modern day Anglican Communion (Episcopal Church in America). These progressive Catholics think that Lutherans and Episcopalians have done a better job at implementing the spirit of Vatican II than the Pope and bishops in union with him have done.

There are two important articles showing the tension that exists now between those who want a Catholic Church that isn't and those who want a Catholic Church that is. I think the "continuity" people will win the day.

READ THESE TWO ARTICLES BY PRESSING EACH SENTENCE BELOW:

IS DOCTRINAL BREAK TIME OVER FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

POPE BENEDICT THE XVI IS BIGOTED AND BIZARRE!

To be sure, there are many clergy, religious and laity that agree with the sentiments of both articles and therein lies the spiritual battle that is ensuing in the Catholic Church. Which army will win the battle?

RESERVE JUDGMENT UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN IT IN PERSON

2012-01-14T06:55:00.004-05:00

San Francisco's St. Mary's Cathedral

Crystal Cathedral, Orange County

Los Angeles' Cathedral, Our Lady of the Angels

Christ the Light Cathedral Oakland: outside

Inside

I have a confession to make. I am fascinated by modern architecture. I actually like it. However I have mixed emotions about it when it comes to building new churches. Most modern parish churches are disasters.

However, I've just returned from a vacation to California and visited several cathedrals there briefly, all of them modern. When I saw these cathedrals in pictures, I was not bowled over but seeing them in person changed most of that.

My favorite is St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. In person it is marvelous. It has wonderful art work in it and places for private devotions prayed in a public space. I loved it. But pictures don't do it justice.

My next favorite one is the Cathedral of Light in Oakland. I hated it when I saw pictures of it, but in person it won me over. I don't care for the altar and I think it could have had a better look to it, but overall it works, but one needs to see it in person. These cathedrals are more than churches, they also include gathering spaces and crypts. This cathedral has a stunning crypt for entombments.

Then I saw the Crystal Cathedral. It will continue to be used by Shuller's ministries for the next couple of years. There was no sign that ownership had changed and it would soon be a Catholic Cathedral. Again, the cost of the property includes not only the church but a great deal of wonderful land and office building. It is a campus. I like how it looks from the outside and fits into the culture of the area. I will be fascinated to see how it will look when it is renovated for Catholic Cathedral liturgies. There are all kinds of beautiful brass sculptures outside that are very "Catholic" looking. There is also a cemetery that is very well done and the list of donors on sidewalk plaques. I think these people may be turning in their graves. I'm not sure how all that will be handled.

Finally there is Los Angeles Cathedral. I did not like it. I did not like the location. I loved the crypt though. The altar area is cluttered. I did love the tapestries though. But again, one has to see it to make a critique. There are some nice aspects to it, but overall it was disappointing.

MARRIED PRIESTS, PERSONAL SALVATION, BEING NICE, CHILDREN AT CHRISTMAS AND VACATION

2012-01-04T11:52:00.000-05:00

I'm on vacation until January 13 and will only have my iPhone and I haven't posted from it which I think I can, but I need a vacation from this, so we'll see if I post anything between now and January 14, but I can easily post comments from my iPhone if I don't delete them by accident (all I have to do is enlarge the image and then the post comment is easier to hit than the delete with my big fat finger.

As you know disaffected Episcopalians are coming into their very own Ordinariate under a seperate nationwide "diocese." Many married Episcopal priests are coming over too with their wives and children and will function as Catholic priests, but will have to be re-confirmed and re-ordained as the Catholic Church does not view Anglican orders as valid, so even their confirmation is invalid, but not their baptism.

When I was in Augusta at Most Holy Trinity from 1991 to 2004, my parochial vicar was Father Dan Munn (RIP). He was married and had a slew of children and grandchildren and his wife was a lector and sometimes lectored when he was celebrating the Mass. We also had Fr. Miguel Grave de Paralta a married former Episcopal priest who was ordained a Melkite Rite priest and has bi-ritual faculties in the Latin Rite. He has two children.

How well would you accept a married priest in your parish. Most Holy Trinity is a very traditional, conservative parish and they loved their married priests. I loved having them too.

Yesterday I entered the world of on-line banking and bill paying. The banking representative who was Baptist asked me how Catholics are saved. I said we are saved by Jesus Christ who in time become incarnate of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit and eventually suffered and died for our salvation. We are saved by God choosing us to be a part of His Church through Baptism and then our response to that grace as we participate in the sacramental, moral and faith life of the Church.

I think it was too much information for him. I think he just wanted me to say that I had accepted Jesus Christ (which I have) but I told him it was more important for Jesus Christ to accept me, which He has!

And finally being nice on line and in comments, please read the following written by Jeff Mirus of Catholic Culture. Please keep in mind that we should engage people in a friendly way even if they provoke us to be ugly, we should just state our case and if you don't want to engage the individual, just don't; don't be ugly:

Hilaire Belloc wisely wrote that the grace of God is in courtesy. Nobody likes being ignored, ridiculed, insulted or otherwise abused. Everybody appreciates being treated with respect and listened to as if his ideas matter. And while not everyone has good ideas, everyone’s ideas do matter. They give us clues to the personality, to the strengths and weaknesses of a particular character, and—perhaps most important—to the needs of a brother or sister in a family that ultimately belongs to God.When I reflect on my own interaction with critics over the past year, I recall those occasions when I was decidedly not conciliatory. And in surveying various discussion groups, including some consisting only of dedicated Catholics, I’ve overheard my share of vitriolic exchanges. We’ve come to expect a low level of social discourse in political discussion, led by political advertising and the verbal maneuvering of televised debates. But there is something wrong—something spiritually wrong—when the same problem afflicts religious discussions.

But the Christian’s call goes far beyond the mere appearance of courtesy. Our Lord requires of us a courtesy motivated by something deeper, namely charity. We all know this, yet again and again, as soon we find ourselves on opposite sides of an issue, we tend to plug our ears and hold our noses—when we should be opening our ears and biting our tongues.

Sometimes, of course, we find ourselves under deliberate and even malicious attack. At CatholicCulture.org, we receive numerous messages through our Contact form in which “unregistered visitors” simply open fire on the Faith, the Church and those who write for the site. Sometimes it is wisest to ignore such messages, especially if the nature of the correspondence and the available time suggest that we will not be in a position to make a positive impact. Similarly, there will be times when any Catholic will have little choice but to extricate himself as politely as possible from an unpleasant personal confrontation.

But often we are faced with disagreements caused by approaching similar questions from different directions or backgrounds, in which animosity, if any, is largely incidental. In such cases, both charity and good sense demand that we hold our fire long enough to understand the values and principles which have led to a contradictory statement. We need to determine, first, whether we’ve missed something significant in either our own thoughts or, as is quite likely, in our own brief comments on the subject at hand. Second, we must discover the strengths and weaknesses of this rival point of view so that we can address the comments reasonably, and even generously.

And third, precisely as a matter of charity, we are called to discern the motivation of our would-be opponent so that we can figure out whether there is something incomplete, weak or broken which cries out for help and healing. Who knows if Our Lord might choose to bestow a grace here through an unworthy servant—through you or me—if we can but hold ourselves open for the task.

This readiness to be used as a means of grace is admittedly difficult to maintain. We are proud, which translates into an excessive attachment to our own ideas, along with a corresponding contempt for contrary ideas and those who express them. And because we are proud, we are also very prickly, taking offense easily, and prone to unseemly distress when contradicted. We seem to be able to recognize the absurdity of such reactions only when we have no stake in the game.

Those of us with dogmatic personalities—and that includes many who take the Faith seriously in a hostile culture—have an additional spiritual hurdle, because we so often confuse our commitment to God’s principles with our own self-importance as God’s spokesmen. This can lead to a habit of self-righteous indignation, as if we must denounce others in defense of Christ, though to be sure He has already indicated His complete willingness to suffer disrespect in order to win hearts. This is usually a case of the servant not really following the Master.

Moreover, we have a tendency to assume that because we know we are right about some things—namely, the dogmas of the Faith—therefore we must be right about everything. But because we have the privilege of accepting the truths of Catholicism, it does not follow that our pastoral preferences are infallible, or our political insight, or our social theories, or our ability to separate truth from falsehood in other fields, or even our spiritual perception. Why then do we pronounce as Catholics on virtually everything under the sun with the same certainty which we ought to reserve for the most basic precepts of the catechism? How easily do all men and women assume the rightness of their own judgments! But in Catholics, who ought to know that they depend at all times on the most generous gifts of God, this belief in our own perfection is a particularly offensive fault.

Here’s a sobering thought: The next person to contradict us (or to contradict the Church) may actually be at an early stage of his own interior journey home. Now it just so happens that, for better or worse, in almost every discussion we ourselves represent home. A harsh word now may drive this person away. A good rule of thumb is that we need to know someone extremely well and have a pre-existing relationship with him if we are to be in any position to speak harshly, and then only as a last resort. We dare not break the bruised reed or quench the smoldering wick (Is 42:3; applied to Christ in Mt 12:20). But I know I have done it. Have you?

Therefore, as we begin a new year and consider our own resolutions, I’d like to recommend that we all strive to discuss the issues that animate CatholicCulture.org with greater charity. I don’t mean so much on the website itself, for we have precious little opportunity for discussion here, except for just a bit of it in Sound Off! or via email. I am referring instead to the deliberate and persistent cultivation of charity in our discussions with those who are not part of the CatholicCulture.org family.

Our purpose—the purpose of all those who take seriously the issues presented through CatholicCulture.org—is to enrich faith, strengthen the Church and form Catholic culture. These tasks are, inescapably, oriented toward others. None of this can be done without love and, in most cases, the first opportunity to show love is in how we talk with others.

Charity in discussion: This could easily be the most important thing we accomplish in 2012 and beyond.

Jeff Mirus

And Father Dawid at the Christmas Family Mass:

TOP DOWN AND BOTTOM UP CHANGES, GOOD OR BAD?

2012-01-03T12:35:00.000-05:00

The Second Vatican Council was imposed upon the Church in a very clear and totally pre-Vatican II way of authority. It was top down. The laity did not ask for Vatican II or the revision of the Mass--it was a top down change.

The same is true with the revised English translation. Certainly there was some concern about the style of the English translation by an elite group of laity but its revision and implementation was top down.

However, the return of the EF Mass first under limited circumstances and then later in a more broad way was from the bottom up although the permission is from the top down. But polling of parishes on the desire to have the EF Mass was requested before the Mass would be allowed in the EF to determine a legitimate need of a stable group who desired it.

On the parish level, the wise pastor knows not to impose that which is not mandated without some input by the laity in terms of consultation and usually through the pastoral council.

For example, let's say my bishop gave me permission to take one of the Sunday Masses and make it very traditional. Let's say I proposed to him that our 12:10 PM Mass be celebrated ad orientem with kneeling for Holy Communion (although those who wish to stand would still be able) and that at this very same Mass, on the first Sunday of the Month it would be an EF Mass. Should I then consult with the pastoral council to the real need for such an option at St. Joseph Church. Should I not also survey the 12:10 Mass after some catechesis about the reason for it before I imposed it from a top down method?

This is all theoretical, but shouldn't that which is not mandated be decided upon in a more democratic way?

MY KRYSTAL BALL SAYS TO REVISE MY LAST THREE PREDICTIONS FOR 2012!

2012-01-03T10:26:00.000-05:00

3. The Krystal Cathedral will be consecrated under the name of The Katholic Krystal Kathedral of Our Lady of Waterford Krystal on 12/21/12 and using the Extraordinary Form of the Mass to do it:

2. Pope Benedict will mandate the use of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass only throughout the Eastern and Western Rites of the Church to make the Mass truly universal and Traditional and he will concelebrate the EF Mass with con-celebrants mandating that only Roman Chasubles be used henceforth and the first EF Mass by the Holy Father will be on 12/21/12:

1. The end of the world will occur on 12/21/12, my birthday:

OF COURSE I'M NOT CLAIRVOYANT, BUT MAYBE I AM SO HERE ARE MY PREDICTIONS FOR 2012 IN REVERSE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE

2012-01-03T08:44:00.002-05:00

10. An election will be held for the presidency of the USA

9. The Democrats and Republicans will have conventions

8. The state of Georgia will continue to have two dioceses

7. Saint Joseph Church in Macon will still be referred to as a Cathedral

6. Catholics will come home and Anglicans will come home

5. Southern Orders will continue to go worldwide and Italians will catch on

4. There will be an EF wedding and an EF Requiem and and EF Solemnity at St. Joseph

3. There will be an EF weekly at St. Joseph and an EF High Mass monthly

2. Pope Benedict will mandate kneeling for Holy Communion and the Benedictine Altar arrangement, but not mandate ad orientem, simply allow to a stable group who wants it

1. The world will not end on Fr. McDonald's birthday, 12/21/12

REFORM OF THE REFORM AND REQUIEM MASSES, I MEAN, FUNERAL MASSES

2012-01-02T12:16:00.000-05:00

Today at the Rorate Caeli blog there is a lament about the slowness of the reform of the reform on the parish level. The author has many good points. Where I disagree with him is that progress isn't being made. This is what he had to say and I'll make some comments at the end:

Last week I traveled to the American Midwest for the funeral of my aunt. Roughly one year ago, I was in the same region for the death of another aunt, which prompted me to start the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. Why? Because my aunt was "canonized" from the pulpit -- even after I pleaded with the priest in private not to -- and robbed of the prayers she deserved.

But this year would be different. So drastically different than before because of the new-new translation of the Novus Ordo, which has been so hailed by conservative Catholics, that I probably wouldn't even recognize the disastrous Mass of my youth.

If you believe all the hype of the new-new translation, then you must believe that my aunt's Requiem Mass would be very different from the last one. Gone, I was sure, would be all abuses that made me more sad than her death itself.

Gone would be the priest turning his back on Christ and now facing liturgical east; gone would be the tabernacle hidden off to the side; gone would be the "Eucharistic Ministers" and women holding their hands up on stage, I mean, the altar, telling us how to sing; for that matter, gone would be On Eagle's Wings, Here I am Lord and Amazing Grace and back would be the classical settings Requiem Mass, or the graceful silence of a low Mass; gone would be the abomination of Communion in the hand; gone would be women in the sanctuary and girl altar boys; gone would be married deacons sermonizing; gone would be the priest as mere presider and back as an Alter Christus; gone would be talking and laughing in the church before and after Mass; gone would be men in sneakers and jeans and women in miniskirts and uncovered heads; gone would be the long lines for Communion by those same Catholics who do not go to confession; gone would be the heresy of proclaiming the dead in Heaven simply because they died.

Back would be the priest facing the altar of sacrifice and the true Holy Sacrifice on Calvary; back would be Communion on the tongue while kneeling; back would be incense and bells and the Real Presence believed by all; back would be lines for confession before and during Mass; back would be the masculine sanctuary where altar boys are acolytes and vocations in the making; back would be the faithful kneeling during the Sanctus and the Angus Dei; back would be the tabernacle in the middle of the sanctuary because back would be the high altar that was torn out during the dark days when Vatican II was simply "misunderstood"; back would be the priest denying Communion to those at Mass whom he knew for sure to be Protestant; and, thankfully, back would be the priest instructing those at the Mass to pray for my aunt, because back would be the authentic theology believed by all, the teaching on the Four Last Things and the possibility she is in Purgatory.

But, alas, back was the same old Novus Ordo with so little change that I could barely notice a difference from when I was a child well over 30 years ago. Because this new-new translation is so utterly worthless, and because changing a few words here and there do nothing to re-form a poorly formed priest possibly preaching heresy from the pulpit, another member of my family was robbed of her right for prayers to be said upon her death.

We wrote here a while back that the new-new translation of the Novus Ordo was "irrelevant." Now that I've witnessed it in person, and have seen first-hand the rotten fruits that come from it, I'd use another word for it, for deceiving many of our friends into believing things have really changed: dangerous.

My comments: The revised English translation of the Funeral Mass is far superior than the older one. The problem with our current Mass, whether funeral or otherwise is that the propers are optional in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.

By propers, I mean, the official Entrance Chant (Introit) and Offertoy and Communion chants. These can be substituted by other hymns and here is the problem the hymns that are chosen can be quite horrid,like Eagle Wings and Be not Afraid and even worse "Old Danny Boy!"

All it would take is for the Holy Father to remove the options and mandate these chants either in Latin or the vernacular.

Now that doesn't mean venerable hymns have to be dumped altogehter but they should not supplant the official chants.

At Saint Joseph Church, we chant the official Introit during the sprinkling of the Body at the Entrance of the Church and as the pall is placed on the casket and then we sing a metrical hymn. The Offertory and communion chants are chanted as well and then additional songs are sung.

This is what we do for Sunday Mass too. The official Entrance antiphon is chanted as the procession begins and then this leads into a metrical hymn. Also the offertory and communion antiphons are always chanted then other music is sung.

Now as far as canonizing the deceased, that really needs proper catechesis and concern from the bishop.

THE WAY TO TRUE REUNION WITH THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

2012-01-01T12:37:00.000-05:00

The Anglican Use Catholic Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey (they like ad orientem and don't freak out at kneeling for Holy Communion, Holy Communion from the Chalice and married clergy. PRESS HERE FOR MORE INFO

The "spirit of Vatican II" ecumenical theologians despise that Pope Benedict establishED the Anglican Ordinariate to bring into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church disaffected Anglicans and Episcopalians. If you know anything of the direction of the Episcopal Church in terms of doctrine and morals, you will understand quite well why so many Anglican and Episcopalians are disaffected. Just read my post on birth control.

But the spirit of Vatican II form of ecumenism was to water down as much of traditional Catholic identity, liturgy, architecture and piety as possible to help Protestants feel at home with the Catholic Church.

But these theologians didn't really want a substantive reunion with the Catholic Church, they wanted all the denominations of Protestantism to feel at home in the Catholic Church and Catholics feel at home in their denominations and pretend that there was unity through Baptism alone as though Baptism in and of itself is some sort of ecumenical panacea. They wanted inter-communion at all times even when there was no organic communion between these denominations ant the true Church.

Pope Benedict has confounded this spirit of Vatican II form of ecumenism by showing that true unity between the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations is by them accepting the fullness of the Catholic Church but also recognizing how the Holy Spirit has preserved elements of "Catholicity" in their spiritual and liturgical heritage. This is something indeed that Vatican II opened the door.

What is also very interesting is that former Episcopal priests who are married are being ordained Catholic priests and former married Episcopal bishops are being ordained priests. They cannot be ordained bishops due to their marriages, but these former Episcopal bishops are going to be allowed to be "Ordinaries" in these Anglican Ordinariates which means that they will have all the administrative authority of a bishop, be able to wear the insignia of the bishop including the miter and staff!

Read the following good news:

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington
Cardinal Wuerl was the Vatican’s representative for the implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus in the United States

It is with great joy that I welcome the establishment of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, and the announcement that Reverend Jeffrey N. Steenson, DPhil, has been appointed its first Ordinary.

Today’s events are the fulfillment of the hopes of many Anglicans in the United States who have longed and prayed for reconciliation with the Catholic Church while retaining cherished elements of the Anglican patrimony.

The establishment of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is the culmination of careful preparation and much consultation with Vatican officials and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. I am especially grateful for the generous assistance and fraternal welcome that many local bishops have extended to those Anglican clergy and groups seeking to join the Ordinariate.

As the former Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande, Father Steenson brings to the position of Ordinary great pastoral and administrative experience, along with his gifts as a theologian. Under his leadership, and through the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham, the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter will both flourish and be a rich blessing to the Catholic Church in the United States.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston
Cardinal DiNardo has been very supportive of the ordinariate, which will be based at Our Lady of Walsingham parish in Houston.

I welcome the establishment of the ordinariate and the appointment of Father Steenson, whom I have known since 2009.

He is a wise and prudent administrator who will bring a vibrant intellect and humility to his role as head of the ordinariate. He has a very deep sense of the meaning of Church. Father Steenson is not only an outstanding patristic scholar, but a priest with a strong pastoral sense and an abiding respect for all people. He will surely be an effective, kind and joyful leader who will love and guide God’s people with the attitude of Christ.

TASTES, SPIRITUALITY AND PASTORAL SENSITIVITIES, THE ORDINARY FORM AND THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM

2012-01-01T08:34:00.001-05:00

Pope Benedict made it quite clear that there are two forms of the one Roman (Latin) Rite and he stated it in a rather novel "spirit of Vatican II" way: The Ordinary Form, meaning the normal manner in which the Latin Rite is to be celebrated in parishes and institutions throughout the world, and the Extraordinary Form, the older, traditional Latin Mass that was the normal Mass of the Latin Rite until the late 1960's.

As far as I can tell from the history of the Latin Rite, this is the first time that we have had two distinct rites of the Mass. Of course there are several different rites in the Latin Rite and in the Eastern Rite. While each differs in minor or major ways, each celebration of the Mass, no matter the rite or style, if valid, celebrates the great Tradition of the Mass--the re-presentation of the One Sacrifice of Jesus and the Paschal Banquet of the Sacrificial Victim who is consumed for our salvation.

One may like the Liturgies of the Eastern Rites because these are in fact more ethereal and other-worldly than even the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite Mass. Or one may prefer the Ordinary Form of the Mass for its flexibility, intelligibility and noble simplicity. One may appreciate that standing for Holy Communion has ancient roots as testified by the Eastern Rite of the Church whose members have always stood to receive Holy Communion and from the time of the Church Fathers. They have always understood that standing for prayer and receiving our Precious Lord is a Resurrection posture, a sign of being "raised up" in the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus celebrated at every Divine Liturgy.

Others in the Latin Rite prefer to kneel for receiving Holy Communion as a sign of adoration, humility and respect and linking them to a very long tradition in the Latin Rite of kneeling.

Others prefer the Extraordinary Form because it is more rigid and universal in its celebration and language and varies little from parish to parish and country to country.

Still other prefer the Ordinary Form of the Mass as it goes back to the early Church in style and content and in this sense is the Traditional Mass of the Church in terms of the use of the vernacular language, the structure of the Mass and its noble simplicity.

Others prefer the spirituality of the EF Mass as it is more contemplative. Whereas others prefer the OF Mass for its ability to enable them to participate more actively and in community with the priest and others in the congregation. They like the involvement of the laity which shows that the Church is both the clergy and the laity who form the Body of Christ with Jesus, the Bridegroom as her Head. They feel more united to the priestly actions of the Mass.

Whereas others prefer the EF Mass as showing forth more clearly the High Priest of the Church, Jesus Christ who on our behalf saves us from sin and death by becoming the Church sacrificial Victim.

But make no mistake, the Church will eventually return to one Roman Missal. It may appear more like the EF in style and spirituality and more like the current OF in language and intelligibility and lavishness of Scriptures and then both the current OF Missal and the 1962 EF Missal will be suppressed.

I'm not clairvoyant, but maybe I am, but I can't say when that will happen but certainly not before the end of the world on my birthday this year of 2012, December 21st when the Mayan calendar runs out.

But in the meantime, the OF Mass will be the normal Mass of the Latin Rite and the EF Mass will be the exception to the normal form for those who request it.

I AM FREAKED OUT AND ASTONISHED IN A BLESSED WAY

2012-01-01T08:09:00.001-05:00

Trying to get Bishop Gregory Hartmayer's attention at his Ordination reception in October to tell him about my blog!

Bishop Boland in disbelief!

Within the last month, the technology that I use to post has offered me data that tells me how many hits I get each day on various posts and from which countries. It doesn't tell me who is reading, just that someone has clicked on the post and from what country.

Well, I am blown away, astonished and freaked out at the same time. These are the statistics:

Pageviews today 222
Pageviews yesterday 592
Pageviews last month 20,046
Pageviews all time history of the past year 47,413

These are the countries!
United States 2850
Canada 123
United Kingdom 114
Philippines 105
India 90
Russia 69
France 56
Hong Kong 55
Germany 40
Australia 28

I never thought my little old blog would get such attention!

A BLESSED NEW YEAR TO YOU; START IT OFF WITH A BLESSED LAUGH!

2012-01-01T07:48:00.001-05:00

NOT DAVE LETTERMAN'S TOP TEN, BUT POPE BENEDICT'S TOP TEN STORIES OF THE RELIGIOUS YEAR

2011-12-31T18:01:00.001-05:00

And ten other top stories of concern to Catholics:

Ten news stories developing:

JUST HOW MUCH AUTHORITY DOES A PRIEST HAVE TO DABBLE WITH CHANGES IN THE LITURGY

2011-12-31T06:06:00.001-05:00

What if a pastor under pressure from a small group of advocates for kneeling at Holy Communion who had formed a small advocacy group and the pastor gave into their demands for kneeling for Holy Communion at the OF Mass, how do you think the majority of Catholic at that Mass would feel?

What if a small pressure group of EF advocates wanted this at the EF Mass and pushed their agenda with the pastor who says, Okay, I'll appease you and do it? How would EF Mass goers feel?

It was until about 1974 or possibly later that St. Joseph Church in Augusta, my home parish where I grew up, changed the manner in which we received Holy Communion. Up until that time, we knelt at the altar railing and received on the tongue. The neighboring parish was standing, some were receiving in the hand and they had a limited number of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion--not out of need at that time, since the chalice was not given to the people and there were enough priests on the staff there, but out of theology. This was a lay ministry that had to be exercised.

Then over night the pastor told us that "Vatican II" said we should stand for Holy Communion, because we are adults and it is more "adult" to stand. Some of us were puzzled by that statement, but it was a rationale and many still use it today. It wasn't until the 1980's that my home parish allowed the common chalice, although I distinctly remember intinction around 1975 and I liked it--but that was short-lived because liturgical theologians were saying it was like "dunking donuts" and shouldn't be done, only drinking from the chalice was liturgically correct.

But the point to what I am saying is that no one in our congregation asked to stand, asked for intinction or asked for the common chalice. No one asked for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. It was imposed and this cause some negative reactions--it was top down and what Vatican II mandated.

As I read some of the comments on my blog, it seems that many who comment like this top down imposition but only if it fits their "theology and theological disposition."

Even though for the Ordinary Form of the Mass, the General Instruction and the rubrics of the Mass clearly favor the vernacular, facing the people, standing for Holy Communion and Communion under both kinds, there are some who would like all that ignored. And there are some priests who are willing to oblige. They impose their own ideology upon their flock. They celebrate Mass ad orientem in the Ordinary Form, they use a great deal of Latin and they do not allow the choice of receiving from the chalice. They do not allow altar girls (although this is allowed in liturgical law) and they do not allow EMC's although this is clearly allowed in the norms and by every bishop in the USA when there is a need. And I want to clearly say that when a priest following the norms of the liturgy that are allowed and thus makes the chalice available that sufficient chalices must be available and sufficient Holy Communion stations must be available to "facilitate" this rite of the Church. So if there is only one priest and you have the chalice and need four stations for the Host and six chalices for the laity--that is a need, not a luxury or a contrived use of EMC's.

But let's put the shoe on the other foot. We know that bishops are slow to correct actual liturgical abuses by priests and congregations in the Ordinary Form of the Mass.

Let say that I want to celebrate the EF low Mass in ten minutes and I race through it. Shouldn't I be able to impose that on you?

Let's say that I like standing for Holy Communion and I impose that on the EF Mass because there are several who want that in the EF Mass? In fact they've formed a community to push this agenda for the EF Mass? They even find priest willing to celebrate the EF Mass with standing for Holy Communion. And let's say that I want to provide the chalice for the laity at the EF Mass because a group at the EF Mass wants it and so I have a Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion providing that at the EF Mass because there are some who want it and they have formed a lobby group to bring it about and I have acquiesced.

Now, how would the majority who go to the EF Mass feel if I succumbed to a small pressure group that wanted these things at the EF Mass and I could care less about consulting with the bishop about it and I do it anyway?

How would those who want to follow the rubrics of the EF Mass feel if there were a group coming to the EF Mass who wanted to make a public act of piety and stand for Holy Communion although the norm for this Mass is to kneel? And to recive in the hand? Should they be accommodated as we are suppose to accommodate those who in the OF form of the Mass refuse the norm to stand and kneel? Just wondering?

POST CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING OF SEXUALITY AND MARRIAGE, FROM WHENCE DID IT EVOLVE?

2011-12-30T15:28:00.002-05:00

Once the Anglican Communion approved this in 1930:

The following images eventually evolved in the Anglican Communion:
Female "bishops" a openingly gay bishop and the same openly gay bishop with his same sex partner:

A brief history from Wikipedia:
Before the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church viewed the purpose of sexual intercourse as almost exclusively for purposes of procreation. As part of the Reformation, Reformers began to more strongly emphasize the unitive pleasures of marriage. Still, all major early Protestant Reformers, and indeed Protestants in general until the twentieth century, condemned birth control as a contravention of God's procreative purpose for marriage.

As scientists advanced birth control methods during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the tradition of Protestant rejection of birth control continued alongside growing dissent from Protestant Nonconformists. As an example of the dissent, the editor of a Nonconformist weekly journal in the United States wrote in 1893,
There was a time when any idea of voluntary limitation was regarded by pious people as interfering with Providence. We are beyond that now and have become capable of recognizing that Providence works through the commonsense of individual brains. We limit population just as much by deferring marriage for prudential reasons as by any action that may be taken after it.

Non-Catholic denominations were slow to officially go along with such a view, although followers were not as reluctant.

Then in 1930, at the Seventh Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Communion, after years of considerable internal debate, issued the first statement permitting birth control "when there is a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood and where there is a morally sound reason for avoiding complete abstinence." During the 30 years afterward, Protestant acceptance of birth control steadily increased. By 2005 acceptance had increased such that a Harris Interactive poll conducted online among 2,242 U.S. adults found that 88% of non-Catholic Christians who identified as either "very religious" or Evangelical supported the use of birth control/contraceptives.

My comments: Most if not all mainline Protestant denominations since the 1930 Seventh Lambeth Conference have embraced all forms of artificial birth control and leave the abortion issue to the private domain and condone laws that allow abortion for the same reason, making it a private matter between a woman, her doctor and whomever else she wishes to consult or not consult.

Since the true and complete meaning of sexuality based on natural law and Sacred Scripture and Tradition is eliminated by most mainline Protestant denominations, they now emphasize the unitive, pleasurable aspect of sex and begrudgingly acknowledge that for some people it can be pro-creative. This has led them to become neutral on same sex relationships and even endorse homosexual marriage.

Pandora's Box was opened in 1930 by one Christian denomination and an unraveling of traditional Christian ethics concerning marriage and sex has evolved for them and most in various Protestant denominations.

Not too far back I was speaking to an Episcopal priest (in another city) who is homosexual and in a committed partnership. His Episcopal bishop endorses his relationship and the Church where he is employed is well aware of it. The only concern by one member of the vestry was whether or not he would show public affection to his same sex partner.

I asked him if a heterosexual Episcopal priest who had a live-in opposite sex partner would be allowed the same liberality. He said no. They can get married legally. I asked, "Isn't that discriminatory?" He said, "I hadn't thought of it that way."

Once a Christian community or individual displaces divine law and natural law in favor of situational ethics or feelings or letting the good times roll, anything becomes possible. Why in the world couldn't an Episcopal priest who is married have a paramour on the side if no one is hurt by this. There are many couples who actually love a ménage à trois. But, heck, why limit it to three? Why limit it to humans?

The absurdity of the logic of the 1930 Seventh Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion has led it to become post-Christian today and spiraling toward Unitarianism, not just in sexual morality but in doctrinal belief.

My last and most important point. If not for Pope Paul VI reiterating traditional Catholic teaching as it concerns human sexuality and marriage and the Church's prohibition to artificial contraception with Humanae Vitae, the Catholic Church would be well on its way to becoming just like the Anglican Communion is today--irrelevant, not because of the truth but because of the infidelity. In fact, there might well have been a reunion with the Catholic Church and the Church of England if Humanae Vitae had not reiterated traditional Catholic sexual and marital morality and the Catholic Church would have today female priests and bishops with same sex partners and same sex marriage and a post-Christian Catholicism.

But herein lies the good news: The Holy Spirit guides the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and the Pope and Bishops in union with him to preserve the Church from fatal errors of this sort. That is why the Catholic Church no longer sees as any real possibility reunion with the Anglican Communion as it now is. Heck, Anglicans around the world don't want to be in union with the Anglican Communion precisely because of its fall from grace and truth symbolized by its errant sexual novelties that started it all in 1930.

With that said though, we must recognize as Catholics that many Catholics who are ill-formed about their Catholic faith and are malformed by liberal theologies and political trends are buying into the Episcopal way of viewing human sexuality or at least into the general culture's decline and fall as it concerns human sexuality. But that is different than the Church herself falling into such error.

NOW THIS IS HOW THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS SHOULD BE SUNG! LISTEN FOR CONGREGATIONAL PARTICIPATION

2011-12-30T10:55:00.001-05:00

WHY THE VATICAN CHOIR CAN'T BE THIS GOOD IS BEYOND ME!
Please note where the choir is. This is classic for a cathedral and goes back to the 4th century in style.
Listen to the Introit by the schola after the processional congregational hymn and the lovely woman in the Santa's hat!

Father Dawid did this almost as well. We did it as a prelude before our Processional and we sang the Latin Introit prior to the processional.

A wonderful Latin Gloria!

A fantastic Sanctus:

The Our Father a wonderful English version

The communion antiphon (wow)

The Dismissal and Marian Hymn before recessional in Latin, listen to the congregation!

IS THERE MORE CONFUSION NOW OR LESS WHEN IT COMES TO THE MASS?

2011-12-30T05:30:00.000-05:00

Ad Orientem or toward the people? Latin or vernacular? Kneeling or standing; Singing the Mass or singing songs at the Mass? The Responsorial Psalm or the Gradual? Chalice or no Chalice? Intinction or no intinction? Girls or no girls? EMC's or no EMC's? The Benedictine altar arrangement or not? The EF or the OF? These are the questions! What is a modern day pastor to do? What kind of guidance are bishops to give?

As much as I love celebrating the EF Mass, I wish there were some flexibility for it, such as a little more vernacular and the reformed calendar and lectionary. Of course the only way to really do that is to have an EF order of the 2010 Roman Missal. That would be so easy.

On this blog it appears that the majority of those who comment are the ones who want what the actual majority of Catholics are not asking. Therein lies the rub. While I might be sympathetic to having the EF Mass at one of our normal Sunday Mass times, I know that doing this would reduce significantly the number of people who attend, especially those with children. Therefore I would never impose this on one of our normal Masses unless mandated to do so by our bishop.

We have a significant number of laity who are willing to be EMC's and find this ministry to be a calling. And we certainly have a significant number of communicants who receive from the chalice. Apart from ideological concerns why take this away from them considering that in the Church of the East the laity have always received from the chalice?

We have the modified Benedictine altar arrangement. Armageddon did not occur. But neither has anyone said yea or nea about it.

I don't think anyone would care if the Gradual was sung instead of the Responsorial Psalm and if in Latin if the English translation were provided no one would say anything. But I think most people like to join in the refrain of the Psalm; I know I do.

So do we have more confusion today? I don't think we do in our parish. We are mainline. We aren't doing anything radically different than most parishes but I think that what we do we do well and we pay attention to detail

But for the more radical shifts that the majority are not seeking. We'll have to wait for the General Instruction of the Roman Missal to be amended as well as the "norms" approved by the Holy See for use in the United States. That's just how I am. I like the law and don't believe that we should impose upon people what is not mandated.

A TALE OF TWO SIMILAR CHURCHES AND TWO UNSIMILAR RENOVATIONS, YESTERDAY AND TODAY

2011-12-29T16:52:00.003-05:00

Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina looks remarkably like the Sacred Heart Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago, but it took a different route toward renovation, thank the Lord.
The 1904 look for Saint Mary in Greenville, SC:

Pre-renovation Sacred Heart (looks similar, no?)

Saint Mary's 1970's Renovation

Sacred Heart's 1950's renovation:

Saint Mary's look today:

Sacred Heart today:

Hillenbrand's Sacred Heart Church post updated

2011-12-29T05:59:00.002-05:00

Go down to my post: "THE MAGIC OF GOING BACK IN TIME VIA THE INTERNET AND GETTING ACCURATE DATA AND IMPRESSIONS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE POST VATICAN II CHURCH" and view what Hillenbrand's Church looks like today as I found photos of it; these are below the original look, Hillenbrand's 1950's renovation and today's renovation. Very interesting!

WHAT IS ACCOMPLISHED WITH THESE RENOVATIONS, ONE MINOR ONE MAJOR

2011-12-29T05:19:00.000-05:00

The first three pictures are the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows in Chicago as it looks today or at least recently. This is the very same church in which the 1941 Solemn High Mass "Dance" was filmed. It hasn't changed much except for the addition of a post-Vatican II altar that in no way compares to the Pre-Vatican II altar or fits with the grand architecture of the this basilica, but at least the old altar wasn't ripped out:

Please note where the new altar is, not in the sanctuary but in the nave and not very well thought out and the pews triangulated around it. At least the old sanctuary was not tampered with nor the magnificent high altar, so theoretically it could be easily restored. What does doing this to a Church like this imply in the minds of the people who attend Mass? Once the Mass was majestic and celebrated on the High Altar, now it is pedestrian and celebrated in a less than dignified position. What comparisons can we make between the old and new altars? What does it imply about the Mass and our attitude toward it?

An earlier attempt at post-Vatican II insights for the Liturgy

How not to renovate a traditional Church--what did this renovation accomplish? I don't know where this church is and what they did with the original sanctuary, it could still be there behind this ugly altar arrangement:

THE MASS AS A DANCE, THAT IS, THE SOLEMN HIGH EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS

2011-12-28T16:38:00.002-05:00

We shouldn't sing at Mass, we should sing the Mass! We shouldn't have liturgical dance at Mass, the Mass is the dance!

The following is a Solemn Sung Mass from 1941 and a beautiful expression of it. The quality of the video is poor and dark, however if you watch closely and listen closely you will learn much about not only the technical and theological aspects of the Mass, but more importantly the pre-Vatican II spirituality and devotional understanding of this Mass. What a pity that we lost the spirituality and devotional aspects of this Mass when it was reformed. Was that necessary? I say no! It did not have to happen and in part I would say the loss of this is what contributed to the loss of Catholic identity that we have not fully recovered yet--but the days are coming says the Lord.

This is narrated marvelously by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. He captures not only the theology of the Mass but the sentiment that we all should have toward the Mass.

Please note what I mean when I say that there is not need for Liturgical Dance when one realizes that the Liturgy is the Dance--we've lost that too with the reform of the dance aspect of the Mass and substituted banal, secular dance in some parishes at Mass. What a pity!

UPDATED PICTURES! THE MAGIC OF GOING BACK IN TIME VIA THE INTERNET AND GETTING ACCURATE DATA AND IMPRESSIONS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE POST VATICAN II CHURCH

2011-12-28T11:38:00.001-05:00

CLICK THIS SENTENCE FOR A PIONEER IN THE LITURGICAL RENEWAL,Fr. Reynold Hillenbrand WHO BECAME DISILLUSIONED BY WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH IN THE 1970'S. HE DIED IN 1979!
Fr. Reynold Hillenbrand parish that he renovated in the 1950's!
Before Renovation:

After renovation:

This is how this very same church looks today! Yes, it is the same church, compare it to the first picture prior to any renovation and then please note the latest take on the sanctuary. The recent pictures make the Church look like a tiny chapel, the original picture makes the Church look like a basilica. Was it just the camera lens? Or did the original design strive for grandeur through optical illusion? Was that grandeur compromised in all the subsequent renovations:
I suspect this is a Rambusch renovation which is how they did things in the late 1970's with the altar, ambo and priest's chair configuration. This is exactly how we renovated St. Teresa's Church in Albany, Georgia in 1981 and we had Rambusch as our liturgical designer However, they did return the arches to the side chapels areas which were squared off in the 1950's renovation. Rambusch was/is famous for their lighting and they did not like hanging chandeliers, so please note the 1950's new hanging chandeliers are removed in favor of recessed lighting which opens the space above the pews which I like.

BLESSED POPE JOHN XXIII CELEBRATING THE ONLY STYLE OF MASS HE CELEBRATED AS PRIEST, BISHOP AND POPE

2011-12-28T11:23:00.001-05:00

This is Pope John XXIII's Coronation Mass. This is the style of the papal elevation with the trumpet fanfare! Please note the Master of Ceremonies barking orders at him. The papal Mass was very complex prior to Vatican II and somehow I wonder if "noble simplicity" wasn't directed toward it rather than the Mass as experienced in most parishes throughout the world which were nobly simple. At the end of this video other videos will come up and they are interesting to watch too!

I'M NOT CLAIRVOYANT, BUT MAYBE I AM, BUT CARDINAL MALCOLM RANJITH MAKES YOU WONDER

2011-12-28T05:31:00.001-05:00

Tridentine Mass celebrated facing the people in 1957:

This is a letter which was written by His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith -- former secretary of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW):

I wish to express first of all, my gratitude to all of you for the zeal and enthusiasm with which you promote the cause of the restoration of the true liturgical traditions of the Church.

As you know, it is worship that enhances faith and its heroic realization in life. It is the means with which human beings are lifted up to the level of the transcendent and eternal: the place of a profound encounter between God and man.

Liturgy for this reason can never be what man creates. For if we worship the way we want and fix the rules ourselves, then we run the risk of recreating Aaron's golden calf. We ought to constantly insist on worship as participation in what God Himself does, else we run the risk of engaging in idolatry. Liturgical symbolism helps us to rise above what is human to what is divine. In this, it is my firm conviction that the Vetus Ordo represents to a great extent and in the most fulfilling way that mystical and transcendent call to an encounter with God in the liturgy. Hence the time has come for us to not only renew through radical changes the content of the new Liturgy, but also to encourage more and more a return of the Vetus Ordo, as a way for a true renewal of the Church, which was what the Fathers of the Church seated in the Second Vatican Council so desired.

The careful reading of the Conciliar Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilum shows that the rash changes introduced to the Liturgy later on, were never in the minds of the Fathers of the Council.

Hence the time has come for us to be courageous in working for a true reform of the reform and also a return to the true liturgy of the Church, which had developed over its bi-millenial history in a continuous flow. I wish and pray that, that would happen.

May God bless your efforts with success.

+Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith
Archbishop of Colombo
24/8/2011

My comments:

First of all, this is an opinion piece by a cardinal that some say could be pope and thus shouldn't be dismissed as off the wall.

I can't see a radical reworking of the Novus Ordo but certainly we can critique some aberrations that were not intended. I think the most unintended is the creativity and drunken inculturation that has occurred with the official liturgy of the Church. Inculturation and creativity is rightly celebrated in street processions and other devotions that are precisely that, devotions which are not universally official.

What are the two areas of the new Order of the Mass that most traditionalists don't like? They are the truncation of the prayers at the Foot of the Altar and the truncation of the Offertory Prayers. Is there a middle ground? Can we have a return to a more traditional format for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar and revisit the Offertory Prayers? Is that a big deal?

The other area apart from the Order of the Mass is the direction of Prayer. I think we have to realize that even in the EF Mass there is no law against it being celebrated toward the people and it was celebrated this way in the 1950's in some places. There is no law that says the OF Mass can't be celebrated Ad Orientem, although for a priest to do this would risk being labeled Pre-Vatican II by progressives as the single biggest reform in their minds was the Mass facing people although never explicitly mandated by the official books.

I think the vernacular is here to stay and I am personally glad for that. I also think the revised lectionary is here to stay although the traditional Gradual may make a come back as it did at the Holy Father's Midnight Mass.

Keep in mind that we have seen a "reform of the reform" with the revision of the Latin Roman Missal in 2003 and the revision of our English Missal and a totally new translation in 2010. These are huge steps in an organic development that isn't complete.

SOME WORDS OF WISDOM FROM A 93 YEAR OLD FORMER PARISHIONER

2011-12-27T15:40:00.001-05:00

Mrs. Rita Harris formerly of Macon and Saint Joseph but now living in Portland, Oregon writes me a letter almost every month. I just received her Christmas letter. She says her neighbor John just celebrated his 100th birthday and as she is in close proximity to him she hopes "that it's not contagious!"

Then she leaves me with some one-liners "to bring good cheer"

1. He who laughs last thinks slowest.

2. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

3. Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have any film.

THE CHRISTIAN GRINCHES WHO STOLE SUNDAY MORNING CHURCH SERVICES ON CHRISTMAS

2011-12-27T15:10:00.002-05:00

A brief Story of the Atlanta Journal:
This Sunday may be the first in a long while that Annette Bridges hasn’t attended church But as it does occasionally, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday and Bridges’ church, First Baptist of Atlanta, will hold its weekly church services on Saturday — Christmas Eve — instead of Sunday, a practice that is becoming more common here and across the country.

The reason, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports -- is so the church’s hundreds of volunteers and teachers can spend Christmas morning with their families, said Marcus Ryan, director of communications at First Baptist Church of Atlanta.

Although there’s no way to estimate the number the churches that have canceled Christmas Day services this year, First Baptist of Atlanta, North Metro Church in Marietta and the North Point Community Church in Alpharetta are among local congregations scheduled to hold Christmas Eve services only.

This story is from Monday's Augusta Chronicle by reporter Kelly Jasper in Augusta, Georgia--a local story about no Sunday services on Christmas Day in some Augusta Protestant Churches (at least the Augusta Chronicle tries to write about local religion stories in the main part of their newspaper, this one was on the front page, whereas the Macon Telegraph seldom reports on local religious news--must be a budget problem with having a reporter to do stories of this nature and that is sad):

Christmas falls on Sunday once about every seven years. That inspired questions from the congregation several weeks back, recalled the Rev. Carolyn Moore, the pastor of Mosaic United Methodist Church in Evans.

“People asked, ‘Will we have church on Christmas Day?’ It hadn’t even occurred to me that we wouldn’t,” Moore said.

With Christmas on a Sunday this year, the pastors of some Protestant churches canceled or consolidated Christmas services in favor of larger Christmas Eve celebrations.

Not at Mosaic, Moore said. On Sunday morning, the church held a festive service, with children in their pajamas invited to “curl up with the King” as they listened to the Christmas story found in the Bible.

Stevens Creek Church in Augusta was one of several to hold services on Christmas Eve, but not on Christmas.

“At the Creek, our families are one of the most important things to us. We encourage you to invest in those relationships more than ever this Christmas, as you celebrate the birth of Christ and the wonderful life He gives,” said an announcement from the church, which held five Christmas Eve services.

True North Church in North Augusta held four services in the two days leading up to Christmas, but none on Christmas Day.

Several churches – including First Baptist of Augusta, First Presbyterian of Augusta, New Life Christian Center and St. John’s United Methodist in Aiken – chose to have just one Sunday morning service instead of the usual two or more.

That’s a common option when Christmas falls on Sunday, according to a LifeWay Research survey. More than 90 percent of Protestant churches planned to hold at least one Christmas Day service this year.

“Having church on Christmas Day when it falls on a Sunday seems as if it would be as much of a given as having Thanksgiving on a Thursday, but this has been an issue of discussion and contention in recent years,” said Ed Stetzer, the president of LifeWay Research, in a news release.

Many churches seem unwilling to “inconvenience” families on Christmas, said Moore, who wrote about her decision to hold Christmas services in a blog post titled, “Why I will go to church on Christmas.”

“No matter what the ads and movies say, Christmas is not ultimately about family,” she wrote. “It is about God. Don’t get me wrong. I love my family a lot, but they didn’t rise from the dead for me. On Christmas morning, I’ll be sitting in the house of the One who loved me so much that He gave His only Son. And I will preach the good news about the Messiah as if it is the most important present any of us will ever receive.”

Cedar Creek Church, with campuses in Aiken and Batesburg, S.C., is among those that didn’t meet on Christmas Day.

The decision was made several months ago, and was largely driven by the church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Phillip Lee, a father of five, said Wes Holbrook, the campus pastor of Cedar Creek Church West, which meets at the University of South Carolina Convocation Center.

“It’s more important for us to give families an option to be home,” said Holbrook.

THE CORRECTED ENGLISH TRANSLATION, ALL THE VISITORS AND ONE LESS VIGIL MASS

2011-12-27T13:23:00.000-05:00

With all our visitors for Christmas Mass, I thought everyone did exceptionally fine with the corrected English translation. The only slight difficulty at least for me was that we have returned to the Mass of Creation for the Sanctus and Mystery of Faith. The Sanctus is basically what it was, but the "God of hosts" part was a bit tricky with the old melody still in my mind. The Mystery of Faith is nice but is new so that was a bit difficult for me without notes in front of me. We sang the revised Melodic Gloria and the congregation simply had the refrain and that was easy enough and our choir and cantors did a marvelous job with the main part of the Melodic Gloria.

We had trumpet, organ and tympani for the main Mass and what a richness these instruments together add to the Mass, the tympani in particular is awesomely majestic.

Our 4:00 PM Vigil Mass was the most heavily attended and people couldn't get into the Church and we had about 100 or so standing. The 6:30 PM Childrens' Mass was packed, but no one standing and the same for the Midnight Mass. We eliminated one of the Vigil Masses, the 8:00 PM. I encouraged people to come on Christmas Day and we only had two, 8:00 and 10:00 AM.

The 8:00 AM Mass was more than our normal 7:45 AM Mass on Sunday and the 10:00 Mass was packed but no one standing. This was the biggest change from last year, more people came Christmas Day and that is good in my mind!

Overall Christmas was marvelous and goes by fast. I still pray that the bishops will mandate one day that the Vigil Mass for Christmas not start until 8:00 PM and that there be only one per parish. That would help re-orient Christmas Mass back to Christmas Day. The Children's Mass could be at a later Christmas morning time.
I could see us having 7:45: 9:30 and 11:30 AM for Christmas Day.

What are your thoughts on having only one later Vigil Mass and then beginning Christmas Day with Mid Night Mass?

A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO YOU

2011-12-25T06:27:00.001-05:00

O GREAT MYSTERY (SACRAMENTUM)

2011-12-24T05:51:00.001-05:00

A BLESSED CHRISTMASTIDE TO YOU FROM SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH, MACON, GEORGIA AT CHRISTMAS

2011-12-23T16:52:00.003-05:00

Saint Joseph Church has a wonderful decorating team for every Sunday and especially for special events such as Christmas and Easter. Steve Gonser and Elaine Schmitt and a cast of thousands put this together and I took the photos with my iPhone!

Do you see Saint Joseph Church's exterior in this shot and the real water fall:

Modified Benedictine Altar arrangement:

Looking at the decorated choir loft and magnificent Rose Window:

The view of the decorated ambo with Poinsettia tree in background:

I've added the Lord's prayer in English under the Latin version, because the English is on the previous page and you have to turn the page for the doxology, but now I don't. And I placed a tab at the bottom of the Doxology's page to make it easier to turn the page as the tab was at the top and made it more difficult:

Since 1985 I've been stationed in churches like Saint Joseph's, first the Cathedral in Savannah, then the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta and now here. Why am I so blessed? "O Lord, I am not worthy to come under your roof!"

JUST WHAT DID VATICAN II WRITE ABOUT THE REFORM OF THE TRIDENTINE MASS?

2011-12-23T10:13:00.000-05:00

In no way was this intended by Vatican II or later developments as it concerns the reform of the Mass:

Reading the summary of Sacrosanctum Concilium below, we can see that the Second Vatican Council asked that the reform of the Mass have "noble simplicity" and expanded Liturgy of the Word, the Prayers of the Faithful and that the faithful receive Holy Communion consecrated at the Sacrifice they attend. It also laid out the principle of concelebrated Masses. It asked that the Latin be preserved and in some specific ways. Oddly enough though, the New Roman Missal does not have an appendix in the back of it for the Order of the the Mass and Eucharistic Prayers in Latin as did the one just discarded. The only Latin in the new Missal is for the Sanctus, the Pater Noster and the Agnus Dei and these are in the main body of the missal not in an appendix. I'm not sure what to make of that.

SUMMARY and Excerpt from the SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM

SUMMARY (courtesy of Encyclopedian)

As the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium was one of the most significant measures enacted by the Second Vatican Council. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963.

Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. 2:4-5), is their right and duty by reason of their baptism. In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else; for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit; and therefore pastors of souls must zealously strive to achieve it, by means of the necessary instruction, in all their pastoral work. (SC 14)

CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI ON DECEMBER 4, 1963

CHAPTER II
THE MOST SACRED MYSTERY OF THE EUCHARIST

47. At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity [36], a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us [37].

48. The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration. They should be instructed by God's word and be nourished at the table of the Lord's body; they should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn also to offer themselves; through Christ the Mediator [38], they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all.

49. For this reason the sacred Council, having in mind those Masses which are celebrated with the assistance of the faithful, especially on Sundays and feasts of obligation, has made the following decrees in order that the sacrifice of the Mass, even in the ritual forms of its celebration, may become pastorally efficacious to the fullest degree.

50. The rite of the Mass is to be revised in such a way that the intrinsic nature and purpose of its several parts, as also the connection between them, may be more clearly manifested, and that devout and active participation by the faithful may be more easily achieved.
For this purpose the rites are to be simplified, due care being taken to preserve their substance; elements which, with the passage of time, came to be duplicated, or were added with but little advantage, are now to be discarded; other elements which have suffered injury through accidents of history are now to be restored to the vigor which they had in the days of the holy Fathers, as may seem useful or necessary.

51. The treasures of the bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God's word. In this way a more representative portion of the holy scriptures will be read to the people in the course of a prescribed number of years.

52. By means of the homily the mysteries of the faith and the guiding principles of the Christian life are expounded from the sacred text, during the course of the liturgical year; the homily, therefore, is to be highly esteemed as part of the liturgy itself; in fact, at those Masses which are celebrated with the assistance of the people on Sundays and feasts of obligation, it should not be omitted except for a serious reason.

53. Especially on Sundays and feasts of obligation there is to be restored, after the Gospel and the homily, "the common prayer" or "the prayer of the faithful." By this prayer, in which the people are to take part, intercession will be made for holy Church, for the civil authorities, for those oppressed by various needs, for all mankind, and for the salvation of the entire world [39].

54. In Masses which are celebrated with the people, a suitable place may be allotted to their mother tongue. This is to apply in the first place to the readings and "the common prayer," but also, as local conditions may warrant, to those parts which pertain to the people, according to tho norm laid down in Art. 36 of this Constitution.

Nevertheless steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.
And wherever a more extended use of the mother tongue within the Mass appears desirable, the regulation laid down in Art. 40 of this Constitution is to be observed.

55. That more perfect form of participation in the Mass whereby the faithful, after the priest's communion, receive the Lord's body from the same sacrifice, is strongly commended.
The dogmatic principles which were laid down by the Council of Trent remaining intact [40], communion under both kinds may be granted when the bishops think fit, not only to clerics and religious, but also to the laity, in cases to be determined by the Apostolic See, as, for instance, to the newly ordained in the Mass of their sacred ordination, to the newly professed in the Mass of their religious profession, and to the newly baptized in the Mass which follows their baptism.

56. The two parts which, in a certain sense, go to make up the Mass, namely, the liturgy of the word and the eucharistic liturgy, are so closely connected with each other that they form but one single act of worship. Accordingly this sacred Synod strongly urges pastors of souls that, when instructing the faithful, they insistently teach them to take their part in the entire Mass, especially on Sundays and feasts of obligation.

57. 1. Concelebration, whereby the unity of the priesthood is appropriately manifested, has remained in use to this day in the Church both in the east and in the west. For this reason it has seemed good to the Council to extend permission for concelebration to the following cases:
1.
a) on the Thursday of the Lord's Supper, not only at the Mass of the Chrism, but also at the evening Mass.
b) at Masses during councils, bishops' conferences, and synods;
c) at the Mass for the blessing of an abbot.

2. Also, with permission of the ordinary, to whom it belongs to decide whether concelebration is opportune:
a) at conventual Mass, and at the principle Mass in churches when the needs of the faithful do not require that all priests available should celebrate individually;
b) at Masses celebrated at any kind of priests' meetings, whether the priests be secular clergy or religious.

2.
1. The regulation, however, of the discipline of con-celebration in the diocese pertains to the bishop.
2. Nevertheless, each priest shall always retain his right to celebrate Mass individually, though not at the same time in the same church as a concelebrated Mass, nor on Thursday of the Lord's Supper.

58. A new rite for concelebration is to be drawn up and inserted into the Pontifical and into the Roman Missal.

KYRSTAL KATHEDRAL IN KALIFORNIA IS A MIRACLE OF KATHOLICISM AND AN EKKLESIAL KOMMUNITY OF KRYSTAL AND LIGHT

2011-12-23T05:31:00.002-05:00

ADVERTISEMENT FOR MIDNIGHT MASS AT THE KRYSTAL KATHEDRAL (KLICK TWICE ON VIDEO FOR FULL SCREEN):

THIS WILL BE A COMMERCIAL DURING THE MIDNIGHT MASS FROM THE KRYSTAL CATHEDRAL:

I like this advertisement better:

Crystal Cathedral sale to diocese a milestone; some see a miracle December 18, 2011|By Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times The deal was a triumph for ecumenism and for Orange County's growing Catholic diocese. Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller is pleased. "I think the Crystal Cathedral will be, for us, the heart and center for our Catholic community," said Bishop Tod Brown of the Orange County Roman Catholic Diocese. "I think the Crystal Cathedral will be, for us, the heart and center… (Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles Times) December 18, 2011|By Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times Whenever clergy from Asia, South America or Europe visit Roman Catholic Bishop Tod Brown in Orange County, they all want to see one church, but not one of Brown's. They want to see the Crystal Cathedral. For decades, the architectural landmark — famous for its 10,000 panes of glass and 236-foot bell tower — has been synonymous with the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his "Hour of Power" broadcasts. That is about to change. Ads by Google Last month, the Crystal Cathedral property became the future home of the diocese after a bankruptcy judge approved the sale for $57.5 million. The Vatican has signed off and diocese officials expect escrow to open soon. In Orange County, where a third of the population is Catholic, the deal represents both vast demographic change and the rising influence of the church. "I think the Crystal Cathedral will be, for us, the heart and center for our Catholic community," said Brown, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on Nov. 15, two days before the court victory. He will help oversee the transition because a successor has not yet been named. Such cooperation between Catholic and Protestant faiths was once unimaginable in American Christianity. In a rare interview, Schuller told The Times that he never saw it that way. "I think it could have happened 20 years ago because I haven't changed," he said. "It's who I have always been." The 85-year-old minister, who became the pivotal unifying force in the bankruptcy sale, said he has always respected the Roman Catholic faith and considers it the "mother church." Schuller also said he drew inspiration for his "Hour of Power" from Catholic Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, whose own popular TV show in the 1950s paved the way. "The Roman Catholic Church isn't going to change its theologies," Schuller said. "I trust them." Still, Brown's tenacious pursuit of one of the most recognizable Protestant symbols surprised many, even Brown himself, who said the idea "never crossed my mind" until several lay advisors approached him. After all, he had long planned to build a cathedral in Santa Ana for an estimated $200 million in response to the booming Catholic population. He even hired an architect last year.

But he quickly saw the bankruptcy as a chance to fulfill his dream in a different way and began a bidding war for the church property with Chapman University.

In the final 24 hours, Brown said that even he thought "it was all over." Then Schuller, who had won over millions of believers through his credo of "possibility thinking," told the court he could not abide the thought that Chapman might someday use the cathedral for nonreligious purposes. The deal was struck.

Diocesan officials were elated, with one attorney calling it a miracle. As Brown put it, "ecumenism has got a shot in the arm."

The acquisition unquestionably raises the profile of the nation's 10th-largest Roman Catholic diocese and could help it emerge from the shadow of the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

"It was a tactical decision," said Father Thomas Rausch, a professor of Catholic theology at Loyola Marymount University. "Here's this beautiful church with a rich history in Orange County and an identity that's already established. It's a bargain for the local church."

It was a bittersweet victory, though, because Brown knew it marked the end of an era for Schuller's world-famous Crystal Cathedral Ministries, which has three years to vacate under terms of the deal, whereupon the Catholic diocese will use the campus.

Sheila Schuller Coleman, the founder's daughter, is senior pastor and continues to preach "possibility thinking," though the philosophy has not brought the $50 million in donations that could have staved off a sale.

"There's plenty of time for God to perform a miracle," she told congregants on a recent Sunday. At the front of the church, a table was set up with sign-up sheets for a "miracle" prayer drive.

Congregant Jillian Carter of Torrance said she still holds out hope.

"I feel like it's not over until it's over. Anything can happen," she said. "This place has its trademark. Nobody can take that."

That trademark is exactly what appealed to the diocese.

When Brown succeeded Bishop Norman McFarland in 1998, there were 600,000 Catholics in Orange County. There are now 1.2 million. That growth can be seen on almost any Sunday. For many parishes, the norm is standing-room-only turnout for Mass; at others, the Sunday crowds spill out the doors. Mass is said in 10 languages, including Vietnamese, Polish, Mandarin, Korean, Indonesian and Spanish.

During Brown's tenure, he dedicated nine churches, bringing the diocese total to 57. He also appointed Latinos and women to key positions and gave a new parish a Vietnamese name, Our Lady of La Vang, a first for a Catholic church in Southern California.

But he never lost sight of building a cathedral, first announcing plans in 2001.

JUST HOW UNTRADITIONAL IS THE UNTRADITIONAL MASS?

2011-12-22T10:33:00.001-05:00

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict celebrating the Traditional Catholic Mass, these two happen to be in the Ordinary Form:

I think I agree with Pater Ignotis on this one. The Mass when celebrated according to the mind of the Church and her promulgation of it is traditional. There are many forms of the Mass down through the ages both in the East and in the West. These are all traditional as the Mass re-presents in an unbloody way the One Sacrifice of the Mass as the bread and wine become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. That is the Tradition with a capital "T". The manner in which this occurs from antiquity to the present and in the East and in the West is celebrated in a variety of traditions with a little "t."

The Ordinary Form of the Mass has only minor changes in both the order and rubrics of the Mass. What has exacerbated its celebration is all the things that liturgical theologians shoved down the throats of bishops and then to priests and congregations. These innovations, such as stripping of altars and churches and even standing for Holy Communion and reception in the hand while considered traditional from the little "t" perspective should have been challenged and not allowed. But that is what happens when the river spills over during any period of reform in the Church. It happened after the Council of Trent too.

The major differences between the OF and EF Mass occur at the "prelude" in terms of the Introductory Rite, the prayers at the foot of the altar which at one time occurred in the sacristy as private prayers for the clergy (and to this day the EF Mass truly begins with the Kyrie) has been replaced in the OF with a shorter Penitential Act. The Kyrie and Gloria are still there.

The offertory rite has been simplified and is more like, from what I understand, is the offertory of the traditional Ambrosian Rite of the Latin Rite Church, thus very traditional a pre-dating the OF Mass as such.

Apart from some other minor tinkering, not much has changed except for the vernacular. If the OF Mass were celebrated Ad Orientem and in Latin with kneeling for Holy Communion, the typical lay person, even one who attends the EF Mass would not see much of a difference.

HAVE YOU BEEN TO CONFESSION

2011-12-22T05:29:00.000-05:00

My parish is fairly good about going to confession. We need two priests for our Saturday Confessions that run around an hour and a half. We have confessions Monday through Thursday at 7:30 AM prior to our 8:00 AM Mass. We had a fairly well attended Advent Penance Service last Thursday and we'll hear confessions Christmas Eve morning at 11:00 AM.

Father Dawid from Poland tells me that at this time of year Polish priests in Poland can hear confessions up to 8 hours a day. I told him that makes sense since the Polish people are notoriously sinful.

How about you. With all the times available to go to confession, have you been?

BEFORE AND AFTER CHURCH RENOVATIONS, I REPORT YOU DECIDE BUT I THINK WE ARE RECOVERING FROM PAST MISTAKES WITH THESE, BUT MAYBE NOT ENTIRELY

2011-12-21T07:41:00.001-05:00

Before and after:

Before:

After:

Before

After

Before and After:

Before:

After:

Only After, no before, but you get the picture:

CHRISTMAS IS RETURNING TO ITS PAGAN ROOTS: SHOULD CATHOLICS EVEN CELEBRATE IT?

2011-12-21T05:20:00.000-05:00

I found this article on the internet:

No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six months after Passover. One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why do we celebrate Christ's birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?

The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.

In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.

In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.

Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means "wheel," the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.

The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ's birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.

Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: "Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ."

The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects.

My Comments: Shouldn't we purify the Church of yule logs, Holiday trees and the date of Christmas? And Easter, what an abomination. Time for Vatican III I think!

WHAT ABOUT CHRISTMAS DAY? SHOULDN'T THAT BE THE DAY OF MASS NOT CHRISTMAS EVE?

2011-12-20T13:33:00.003-05:00

I happen to like Vigil Masses and I am glad that we have a vigil Mass on Saturday. It extends Sunday and is very Jewish. The Holy Day begins at sun down (or thereabouts).

But then there is Christmas and the proliferation of Vigil Masses. Last year we had three vigil Masses, at 4:00 PM; 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM.

Christmas Day had three Masses, Midnight, 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM.

The majority of people try to cram into the Vigil Masses so that Christmas Day is free. In fact, truth be told, we could get away with only one Mass on Christmas Day.

This year, we're bucking the trend by eliminating one of the Vigil Masses, the 8:00 PM Mass. And I'm not adding any additional Masses on Christmas Day and in fact have eliminated two Masses as it is a Sunday this year.

I'm a little bit nervous about our crowd control this year. I've encouraged our parishioners to make use of the two Christmas Day Masses. Time will tell.

Could you imagine a proliferation of Vigil Masses on Easter? At least for Easter, the bishop sets the time for the only Vigil, and a vigil it is.

Maybe bishops should be more pro-active in reclaiming Christmas Day as the Day of the Mass by saying that we can't have Christmas Eve Masses before 10:00 PM. What do you think?

POWERFUL MOVIE SCENE, ALTHOUGH A PROTESTANT COMMUNION SERVICE ITS ESCHATOLOGICAL MEANING IS VERY CATHOLIC AND QUITE ORTHODOX!

2011-12-18T09:08:00.001-05:00

I think that Pope Benedict while not endorsing the form of the "Protestant Communion Service" would very much appreciate the significance of it as it concerns forgiveness and reconciliation in heaven which the Holy Eucharist is meant to signify. The brief synopsis below will help you to understand the very last scene of the movie and it is powerful, but one really needs to see the entire movie to appreciate it:

Places in the Heart

Martha Moore-Keish on Communion and Hope for Heaven

“Action adventure films like The Rapture and Left Behind get people talking about the end times. But the final scene from the 1984 film Places in the Heart offers a more biblically complete picture of what God intends for us in the new heaven and new earth.

Set in rural Texas during the Depression, the film ends with people passing bread cubes and tiny cups of grape juice down the pews. A woman passes the elements to her cheating husband. Ku Klux Klan members share bread and juice with a black man they assaulted. A sheriff, killed at the start of the film, quietly passes the bread and cup to the young black man who shot him, saying, ‘The peace of Christ.’

‘In that understated scene, the living and the dead, black and white, young and old, those who have sinned and those who have been sinned against, all sit together in the same dusty whitewashed sanctuary to share the Lord’s Supper,’ says Martha Moore-Keish, assistant professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

Moore-Keish often uses this film clip to explain how the layered meanings of the Eucharist deepen our eschatological understanding of how to live now as citizens of heaven.”

THE POST VATICAN II MASS: DID CARDINAL RATZINGER REALLY MEAN WHAT HE WROTE OR IS HE INTERPRETED OUT OF CONTEXT?

2011-12-18T06:07:00.000-05:00

The legacy of Pope Benedict XVI cannot be measured merely by his nearly seven year papacy, it must be measured by his entire priesthood culminating in being first named the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith where he came to be known as "God's Rottweiler" for disciplining errant theologians like Fathers Hans Kung and Edward Schillebeeckx and many others who promoted theologies of Christ, the Church and salvation that were falsifications and fabrications that all had a deleterious effect on the revised Catholic Mass. Cardinal Ratzinger's naming these theologies and theologians for what they were and are has earned him their scorn as well as the scorn of the progressive wing of the Church that sought to deconstruct and re-imagine the Church, in other words to do away with the true Church with which Vatican II was actually in continuity.

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) himself, in his preface to Mgr. Gamber’s ‘Reform of the Roman Liturgy’, called the new rite a ‘fabrication', and in the next sentence a ‘falsification.’

I have read where Cardinal Ratzinger said this, but I have also read a speech he gave to traditionalists in the late 1990's that if the Post Vatican II Sung Mass were celebrated in Latin, strictly following its rubrics and ad orientem, that most laity would not be able to detect the difference between the older and newer forms of the Holy Mass.

I think what Cardinal Ratzinger was decrying was not so much the post-Vatican II Mass, but theology about it that was a fabrication or falsification. The following is what I would deduce Cardinal Ratzinger meant, but I am open to correction and I have no footnotes to qualify what I am writing as being attributed to the then cardinal.

1. The emphasis of the Mass as a meal rather than the "re-presentation of Calvary in an un-bloody way": what this does is to impact not only the style of the celebration of the OF Mass, but its architecture and orientation of the people and non-rubric manipulation of the Eucharistic Prayer. The altar is stripped, made to look like someone's dining room table; the altar is thrust into the nave of the church so people can be seated around it and enjoy seeing each other and the priest at the consecration gestures with the bread and chalice of wine toward the people as though they are at the Last Supper just like the apostles--a literal enactment not of Calvary but of Holy Thursday's "fellowship meal." That is a fabrication and falsification of the Mass! But with that said, once the "re-presentation of Calvary in an un-bloody way occurs during the Canon" the Rite of Holy Communion is a "meal" in the sense of Christ bringing us into union with Himself through our worthy reception of Holy Communion, bringing us all the merits that He has won for us in becoming the Sacrificial Victim. In other words it is not a "fellowship meal" like Christmas dinner at home or worse yet a "McDonald's Happy Meal."

2. Low Church and Low Christology as it concerns Catholic doctrine and dogma about the Church and about Christ. Some theology of the Church and of Christ in the 1960's and 70's made Jesus just a good buddy and de-emphasized His divinity. The Church too was turned into a merely human institution devoid of divinity. This of course is a fabrication and falsification of the Mass, but certainly not intended by Pope Paul VI who approved the revised Mass. The way this fabrication and falsification manifests itself is through the demand that the communicant like the priest (because of the false and fabricated theology that there is no difference between the two) stand where kneeling was once prescribed, such as during the Canon of the Mass and at the reception of Holy Communion and that the communicant take the consecrated Host in his hand rather than on the tongue.

3. False theology of ecumenism is another falsification as well as fabrication that had a deleterious effect on the Mass. Intercommunion, the stripping of the traditional accoutrements of the Catholic Churches, the shunting of the tabernacle outside of the sight line of the nave all appeared as a dethronement of Jesus Christ and a lowering of His divine status (low Christology). Catholic Churches began to look more like Protestant Churches to emphasize the hope that all would be one one day. But true unity does not come about by selling out our Catholic identity or fabricating and falsifying a new one.

Just some thoughts.

My last comment pertains to the revised Mass. If celebrated according to the mind of the Church, meaning following the General Instruction and all the rubrics and using good liturgical music, there is no falsification or fabrication. We merely need to recover some things, like the traditional orientation of the Catholic sanctuary and kneeling for Holy Communion. Those two things alone would solve many problems associated with fabrication and falsification. The Mass itself is not that, a false and fabricated theology imposed upon it is.

CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD ARE WE ETERNAL, WITH NO BEGINNING AND NO END?

2011-12-17T07:32:00.000-05:00

Is this heresy? In time our immortal souls become incarnate in the pro-creative act of mother and father and by the power of the Holy Spirit (since all creation comes from God as its source).

From this can we also say that just as God has no beginning and no end, He simply is (I AM) that we too are like that? By this I mean was there ever a time when we as individuals were never a "thought" in the Mind of God? That well before we were conceived that we were? Is the "thought" of who we are "eternal," with no beginning or end since this thought is in the mind of God? Does God ever cease to think of what He thought (since there is no time in eternity and thus no past or present or future but only "is")?

Thus can we say that if the soul is immortal because of this very truth, that God also thinks of our bodies too before they were created in the procreative act which makes our bodies eternal too? Therefore, since the Original Sin of Adam and Eve which we inherit at the moment of our material conception interfered with God's eternal plan and corrupted it and thus necessitated the incarnation of the eternal God by the Holy Spirit and in the Blessed Virgin Mary in time to save us (Body and Soul since both were meant to be eternal, unified and uncorrupted) from this stain of sin in the Blood of Christ at the Cross which washes us of that Original Sin and any actual sins we may have committed in other to restore us to the Original Thought and plan of God from all eternity?

Therefore, not only are our souls immortal but also our bodies, but in the material order of things stained by sin, the material corrupts and soul while not disintegrating like the material is corrupted too and cannot live with God in Heaven while in a corrupt form therefore needs purification/washing in the Blood of Christ both here in time and/or in eternity in purgatory?

For those who choose to separate themselves from God by an act of the free-will which is properly called mortal sin, our souls don't cease to exist since these can't because they are "God-like" but rather these in their corrupt nature go to Hell. They never cease to exist like God, He will never cease to exist.

The same is true of our Bodies which when united to our souls but only separated due to sin, will live forever also since these like God are eternal since these like God were always (due to being in the Mind of God).

So at the end of time and at the Second Coming, eternity will be realized and understood. The resurrection of the Body will occur and those saved will live for an eternity in paradise with God with their bodies and souls according to the glorified body of Jesus Christ.

And those souls damned to hell will have their bodies too in hell but in the corrupted un-redeemed form with all its sin, disease and decay still attached just as their souls?

Is this true or not according to logic, reason and implication? Does it go against Catholic teaching?

THE POPE IS NOT CHRIST, HE IS THE SUCCESSOR OF SAINT PETER AND ALL THAT THAT MEANS AND THE VICAR OF CHRIST

2011-12-17T05:57:00.000-05:00

Every pope, because he is not God and sometimes more like St. Peter than God, is a mixed bag in terms of his papacy. This was true of Paul VI and John Paul II. It is true of Benedict the XVI. One of the things that I have liked about Benedict is perhaps what others would view as the greatest weakness of his papacy, he has not made himself the star of the show. Whereas John Paul II by shear force of his youthfulness at the time of his election (my age now, 57)and his energy, charisma and power to command the world stage, created what I despise in priests, the "cult of the personality." But John Paul's cult of the personality was necessary at that particular time in the history of the world and the Church. From all accounts, John Paul II was not a good administrator (governor) either.

No matter the ability of the pope or his sanctity, God uses the papacy as a part of His overall plan of salvation within the context of human history, salvation history.

My favorite religious reporter who writes for my least favorite and so-called National Catholic Reporter, John Allen has written a very good commentary on how some view Pope Benedict's papacy. As always, John Allen is fair and balanced as well as accurate. YOU CAN READ IT HERE BY PRESSING THIS SENTENCE.

The key [to evaluating this papacy] lies in grasping that Benedict XVI sees himself as a teaching pope, not (at least, not primarily) a governing pope.

Should our next Pope sound like this? It would command the world's attention and the media's too!:

WELL THEN, JUST HOW THE PURGATORY DO THEY GET INTO HEAVEN?

2011-12-16T07:05:00.000-05:00

Of course the Church teaches that outside the Church there is no salvation. I believe this is a dogma of the Faith but I am sure you will correct me. Mohamed doesn't save you. Being a Hindu doesn't save you. Being a Buddhist doesn't save you and none of the pagan gods whatever they may be new or of antiquity, will save you. Only God through His Son and His Church by the power of the Holy Spirit saves you! You must be a member of the Catholic Church to be saved!

Of course by Church, Holy Mother Church means the Communion of Saints on Earth, meaning the Church Militant with her sacramental system, Hierarchy (which is a part of the sacramental system, Holy Orders anyone) and her moral laws based upon Divine Law, Natural Law and man made law for the sake of order in the Church Militant.

Then there is the Church Suffering in Purgatory. Those who experience this are a part of the Communion of Saints already redeemed but being purified. There is of course no Hierarchy of Pope and His bishops nor a sacramental system as with the Church Militant. The law of God is written in the hearts of those being purified and so there is no external force to bear as in the Church Militant. The prayers of the Church Militant though assist those Poor Souls or Holy Souls being purified.

Then there is the Church Triumphant in heaven where all the souls who are there are made perfect in the complete sense of salvation, apart from having attained at least in our temporal way of understanding things, limited by time and space, their gloried, risen bodies modeled after the Glorified and Risen Body of our Savior.

In heaven the Church Triumphant of course needs no hierarchy or sacramental system to make visible the hidden presence of Christ and to show forth His sanctifying grace. We see God as He is in the Risen Divine Person of Jesus Christ. The Church as the Body of Christ is made plainly visible and tangible as well as Christ who is the Bridegroom and His redeemed who collectively are His Bride. The Eternal Wedding Banquet of heaven is manifestly experienced and not in any way through sacramental signs. The complete perfection of the Law of Christ is forever imprinted upon our perfected hearts or souls.

So from this point of view, the three aspects of the Church of Christ are necessary for salvation.

But what of those who for no fault of their own or because of invincible ignorance do not know the true God and His Son Jesus Christ. Holy Mother Church does teach that they can and will be saved, but through Christ our Lord. Through the divine truths that are perceptible in their natural or religious life, God is as work (and this is an incomplete aspect of the Church Militant).

When they die, they become members of the Church Suffering (and here I know of no real doctrines concerning this or dogmas, but only from a speculative point of view). Whatever is lacking in their experience of the Church Militant is purified and rectified and brought fully to bear upon them through the direct grace of the Risen Savior and the prayers of the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant.

Then they enter the Church Triumphant, fully members of that catholic (or universal) community that we call the Church! But my question remains, for them, the unbaptized, those of other faiths and no faiths, at the judgement is it possible for them in the sense of complete free will to reject God, but not having led lives of debauchery and hate, they are condemned not to the bottom wrung of hell but to its highest level, Limbo? In this sense is Limbo as a part of hell, which it is clearly called in the Apostles Creed a dogma? Has it truly come to a conclusion or are there others there and for a life time?

Is it as simple at that? Illuminate me where I teach heresy.

THIS TYPE OF MARTYRDOM POSSIBLE NOW AND HERE?

2011-12-16T05:24:00.003-05:00

For those who don't understand Spanish, there are subtitles for you to read. One hopes that the English translation is a literal dynamic and not a dynamic equivalency! We know how horribly wrong that can be.

Two interesting points. The Liturgy of the Church even prior to Vatican II had different expressions depending on the country or the culture. You'll see one such expression in the video. Can you pick it out?

Secondly, this happened only 80 years ago in Catholic Spain. With such antipathy toward the Church from the dictatorship of political, godless secularism, could it happen again in Western Europe; or let's say the the United States? I report the movie, you decide if the circumstances are right again for such a thing.

I DON'T LIKE BEING POLITICAL, BUT THIS IS TELLING IT LIKE IT IS! I WONDER IF THE LAST JUDGMENT WILL BE THIS WAY?

2011-12-15T11:10:00.001-05:00

THAT WHICH MIGHT HAVE BEEN BUT NEVER WAS

2011-12-15T06:58:00.000-05:00

Two days ago I received my new iPhone. It has a feature on it of various clocks that you can set for various countries. So I set it for Halifax, the time of my relatives in Judique. I have a cousin in London, so I set one for London time and I have all my Italian relatives in Livorno so I set one for Rome's time. I thought to myself now I'll know what time it is in Italy all the time at the touch of a virtual button!

No sooner had I completed this, I went to check my emails and a cousin I do not know in Livorno emailed me that they had just found my my email address and wanted to update me. This cousin speaks and writes English very well whereas most of my relatives there do not speak English at all.

I've been filled in on so many things that I did not know about my mother's side of the family and her parents. My grandparents on both my father and mother's side were dead before I was born, so I've always wondered about them and in a sense have always grieved over not having known them, kind of like an orphan who never knew his parents, although not as dramatic as that of course.

At any rate, I received by email this morning these pictures. One that I have seen all my life of my mother's parents which she has on her night stand which is in a frame and a bit more doctored up than the original below which I've never seen and then another one of them outside which I've never seen and then a picture of my mother, and her two sisters at lunch at my aunt's apartment in Livorno outside on their back porch. this was taken in July of 1981 or 82 when for the first time since 1956 I went back to Italy with my mother and visited Livorno for the first time. I am out of the camera's range, but my Zia Angiolina is serving my mother some Parmigiano on her pasta, and my other Zia Asuntina is standing and my mother is on the right sitting. The only aunt I really knew was Zia Asuntina (Tina) who immigrated to Chicago with her daughter in the late 1950's and would visit us frequently in Georgia and we would go frequently to Chicago to visit them. Going to Chicago to visit them was like going to Italy for me. All their friends were Italian and everyone spoke Italian all the time.

My Zia Angiolina made some of the most wonderful meals while I was there including seafood that I had never had since Georgia two hours away from the coast doesn't have the same type of seafood as Livorno right on the Mediterranean.

I often wonder what my life would be like today if we had stayed in Italy. I grieve over that too.

DIVERSITY IN MY PARISH KICKED UP A NOTCH!

2011-12-14T18:21:00.001-05:00

Saint Joseph Church is getting another parochial vicar, meaning the parish and I will have two parochial vicars! How cool is that! When I was first assigned here in 2004 and for the first four years I had two parochial vicars and it was wonderful. Should be so again I pray!

Fr. Godfred Boachie-Yiadom was born on July 17, 1960 in Ghana, West Africa, and was ordained a priest on July 29, 1995 for the Catholic Diocese of Obuasi in Ghana. He served as a Pastoral Associate at the St. Thomas Cathedral, Obuasi, the Diocesan Director of Vocations, the Diocesan Youth Chaplain and the Diocesan Chaplain for the Knights and Ladies of Marshall. From 1998-2001, Fr. Godfred was a resident priest at the St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church, Cincinnati, assisting in pastoral ministry and teaching religious education at the parish school while he took classes at the Athenaeum of Ohio. From 2001 to 2008, he taught Scriptures and spiritual theology at the St. Paul Catholic Seminary, Accra, and at the Kumasi Archdiocesan Lay Theological Institute.

Father has been back in the United States on sabbatical and study leave since 2008, helping at Our Lord Christ the King Church, Cincinnati, and at St. Benedict Church, Dayton, while working on his Doctoral Program at the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton. He currently holds Masters Degrees in Biblical Studies and in Systematic Theology from the Athenaeum of Ohio. "I must say I am very much happy and excited about my new pastoral assignment and anxiously look forward to be part of the St. Joseph parish family at Macon."

Father Dawid Kwiatkowski is from Poland and has been in this country for five years. He was ordained in June and had his first Mass at St. Joseph the day after.

In front of him (in the shadows) is his new pastor, yours truly, Father Allan Joseph John (Sainati)MacDonald.
My father was from Judique, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. My mother Isolina Clara Sainati-MacDonald is from Livorno,Italy and I was born in Napoli. We came over to the USA as a family in the summer of 1957 when I was three years old.

We three priests of orient are, now living in the heart of Georgia with its unique take on English and its own wonderful culture.

But how much cultural diversity can we three priests take in the holy rectory and how much can our parishioners take not all of whom are southern, but many from Asia, Africa and Europe not to mention the Middle East?

Oh the joy of being Catholic!

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO COME HOME TO YOUR CATHOLIC FAITH!

2011-12-14T14:44:00.001-05:00

THE CHURCH AS THE PROMOTER OF HUMAN RIGHTS

2011-12-14T07:28:00.001-05:00

To hear those who want to promote same sex marriage tell it, the Catholic Church and all other world religions who understand marriage between a man and woman (for us, one man and one woman and for a life-time)are bigoted in their beliefs and must be marginalized in our secular society as liberal politicians and godless secularists push the agenda of same sex marriage world right under the guise of "human rights."

Because these secularists, some of whom say they profess the Catholic Faith, want to promote a form of human rights that marginalizes orthodox Christians and those of other religions who hold fast to heterosexual monogamy and prohibitions on sexual intercourse outside of marriage as sinful, (and unnatural sex between husband and wife also as sinful)they wish to shunt us to the private and not allow us any say in the public square.

So Catholics who promote traditional Catholic morality now will be seen by this cabal of secular engineers in the same category and George Wallace, Lester Maddox and the fictional character Archie Bunker only this time it will be our opposition to same sex marriage and our promotion of sexual chastity outside of marriage and sexual chastity within marriage (fidelity to one's spouse).

Finally, if you read Hilary Clinton's complete speech here of which I print a portion below, who can argue with some of her sentiments? For the most part, people of good will don't want homosexuals to be mistreated, abused or denigrated. However, does the promotion of heterosexual marriage and chastity in and outside of marriage foment violence on homosexuals? I think there are many who would beg to differ.

Hilary Clinton recently gave a speech on "gay" rights. This is what she said in part:

And the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. It proclaims a simple, powerful idea: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. And with the declaration, it was made clear that rights are not conferred by government; they are the birthright of all people. It does not matter what country we live in, who our leaders are, or even who we are. Because we are human, we therefore have rights. And because we have rights, governments are bound to protect them.

In the 63 years since the declaration was adopted, many nations have made great progress in making human rights a human reality. Step by step, barriers that once prevented people from enjoying the full measure of liberty, the full experience of dignity, and the full benefits of humanity have fallen away. In many places, racist laws have been repealed, legal and social practices that relegated women to second-class status have been abolished, the ability of religious minorities to practice their faith freely has been secured.

In most cases, this progress was not easily won. People fought and organized and campaigned in public squares and private spaces to change not only laws, but hearts and minds. And thanks to that work of generations, for millions of individuals whose lives were once narrowed by injustice, they are now able to live more freely and to participate more fully in the political, economic, and social lives of their communities.

Now, there is still, as you all know, much more to be done to secure that commitment, that reality, and progress for all people. Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed. Many are treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens while authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse. They are denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from their homes and countries, and forced to suppress or deny who they are to protect themselves from harm.

I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time. I speak about this subject knowing that my own country's record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect. Until 2003, it was still a crime in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some, including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily experiences. So we, like all nations, have more work to do to protect human rights at home.

Now, raising this issue, I know, is sensitive for many people and that the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT people rest on deeply held personal, political, cultural, and religious beliefs. So I come here before you with respect, understanding, and humility. Even though progress on this front is not easy, we cannot delay acting. So in that spirit, I want to talk about the difficult and important issues we must address together to reach a global consensus that recognizes the human rights of LGBT citizens everywhere.

The first issue goes to the heart of the matter. Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the same. Now, of course, 60 years ago, the governments that drafted and passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were not thinking about how it applied to the LGBT community. They also weren’t thinking about how it applied to indigenous people or children or people with disabilities or other marginalized groups. Yet in the past 60 years, we have come to recognize that members of these groups are entitled to the full measure of dignity and rights, because, like all people, they share a common humanity.

It is violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to cultural norms about how men and women should look or behave. It is a violation of human rights when governments declare it illegal to be gay, or allow those who harm gay people to go unpunished. It is a violation of human rights when lesbian or transgendered women are subjected to so-called corrective rape, or forcibly subjected to hormone treatments, or when people are murdered after public calls for violence toward gays, or when they are forced to flee their nations and seek asylum in other lands to save their lives. And it is a violation of human rights when life-saving care is withheld from people because they are gay, or equal access to justice is denied to people because they are gay, or public spaces are out of bounds to people because they are gay. No matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we are, we are all equally entitled to our human rights and dignity.

Universal human rights include freedom of expression and freedom of belief, even if our words or beliefs denigrate the humanity of others. Yet, while we are each free to believe whatever we choose, we cannot do whatever we choose, not in a world where we protect the human rights of all.

GET THE H--- OUT OF THE CHURCH!

2011-12-14T05:26:00.000-05:00

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin was quoted as suggesting that Ireland’s lapsed Catholics should have the maturity to leave the Church. In an obvious reference to “cultural Catholics” who want to be married in a church and have their children baptised for purely social reasons, the archbishop is alleged to have said: “It requires maturity on those people who want their children to become members of the Church community and maturity on those people who say ‘I don’t believe in God. I really shouldn’t be hanging on to the vestiges of faith when I don’t really believe in it.’ Archbishop Martin urged non-believers to walk away from the church.
My comments: I'm not so sure how accurately the Archbishop was quoted. I happen to think Catholic priests are sometimes way too dogmatic with young couples who for the first time in their lives make contact with the church either to be married or to have their children baptized only to be rebuffed in a cynical way by the priest they contact. Wouldn't it be better to be welcoming of them, explain to them what the Church believes and teaches and what the expectations are for marriage and having a child baptized and then just let the Holy Spirit worry about the rest of it. We don't have to control everything and we must recognize that there will always be lapsed Catholics and Catholics who attend only at Christmas and Easter. Why should we push them out of the Church altogether. That seems counterproductive to me and opposed to the new Evangelization.

WHAT THE LIMBO?

2011-12-13T09:29:00.003-05:00

Read more about what Pope Benedict says about limbo by pressing this sentence.

Limbo as a semi-doctrine is the place of rest where the souls of all the just remained until heaven was reopened by Christ (descended into hell, from the Apostles' Creed). This can rightly be called a definition of limbo since it is implied in the Apostles' Creed.

Some have believed too that limbo continues as the place for the unbaptized, in particular babies who for whatever reason died before being baptized. Normally, this theological proposition was to describe what happened to babies born to Catholic families, not the great unwashed of civilization who never intend to become Catholic either through invincible ignorance or the fault of the Church in not evangelizing properly.

So, can the non-baptized be saved, babies, children or adults? We generally say that yes they can if through invincible ignorance or no fault of their own they do not know Christ and His Church. Once knowing both, and they still refuse to be baptized and become Catholic, we would say that salvation could well be closed to them.

There are many good people who are quite content not being Christian or knowing, loving or serving the true God. They are profoundly spiritual and take their own non-Christian religion seriously. Why do we do all kinds of theological machinations to make sure we feel good that somehow God will bring them to heaven and through Jesus Christ that they never really gave a "flip" over?

Why not just say that they are in limbo and great place much like the faith they may have celebrated but the true God isn't there? Why do we have to say they are in heaven too just to make us feel better?

NEW RATS IN THE RECTORY TAUNTING ME!

2011-12-11T13:59:00.002-05:00

We videoed our rat traps to see how these work and the rats strike back with this taunt: PRESS HERE TO VIEW!

Oh, woe is me!

AS WE SAY IN THE SOUTH, "I WAS JUST TICKLED PANK!" (PINK)

2011-12-11T12:12:00.005-05:00

Although I always emphasize that the priest is really wearing Rose/Rosacea and not pink, this is Deacon Don Coates and me just prior to our Gaudete Sunday Mass at 9:30 AM this morning! Even though I'm 58 and Deacon Don is 66, but looks a bit younger, at least I don't use Just for Men!

And many of you know that Macon, Georgia has more cherry trees than Washington, DC and that we have a wonderful Cherry Blossom Festival every year. Pink is the color of the Cherry Blossom Festival and everything in Macon is decked out in pink and everyone has something pink to wear and the men all wear pink blazers. It's all very nice.

This year St. Joseph Church has been designated as the Church that will host the opening Worship Service for the Cherry Blossom Festival with our Mass on Sunday and many dignitaries will be in the Church and will hold a luncheon afterwards in our social hall.

Guess which Sunday that will be! It will be Sunday, March 18th and guess which Sunday that will be! Laetarae Sunday! And guess which vestments we'll wear! You guessed it! Cherry Blossom Pink!

And on top of that they are getting me a pink blazer (or should I ask for a pink cassock?) and I'm going to ride in the parade later that Sunday in a convertible wearing it! I can't wait.

WE JUST HAVE TO SAY NO TO THOSE WHO WANT A LIBERAL CATHOLIC CHURCH

2011-12-11T05:23:00.003-05:00

As some of my previous posts indicate, there is a final, feeble resurgence of a cabal of dissident Catholics from the 1960's and 70's who are trying to seize upon some of the woes the Church is experiencing to push their old agenda for the Church, a liberalizing agenda.

From the 1970's this is still the liberal agenda for the Church:
1. married priests
2. female priests
3. redefining Holy Orders to allow anyone to celebrate the sacraments
4. inclusiveness of lifestyles (now to include homosexual marriage)
5. Contraception and abortion without guilt
6. Liturgies that are created anew and for each congregation, super-creativity
7. Penitential Rite of the Mass to be sufficiently sacramental Penance
8. Divorce and remarriage without guilt
9. inter-communion and communion to whomever wishes to receive baptized or not
10. No Roman control, popes and bishops facilitators of whatever any congregation or religious group wants rather than authoritative leaders of clarity in doctrine, morals and Church unity

There is not much new about their agenda except they are very vocal and more divisive than ever. The other thing that isn't new is that if they succeed in gaining greater support, especially that of a bishop or two, there could be a real schism like the sort led by Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve in the 1970's and 80's that led to his excommunication and the excommunication of the bishops he consecrated.

The only silver lining in this dark liberal cloud is that liberals are so wishy-washy and all over the place, that their radicalness can never be unified through latent anger alone. They are so splintered that the only viable option is a lose confederation of congregationalism. And yes, we have that in Protestantism. I just wonder why in the world they want to reinvent the wheel and drag the Universal Church down with them.

Now if you want to see what would happen to the Catholic Church if the liberal agenda won the day, just look at what is happening to the Anglican Communion (Episcopal Church in America):

From the United Kingdom's Weekly Standard
The End of Canterbury
Will the sun set on the Anglican communion?
Dec 19, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 14 • By JOSEPH BOTTUM

The archbishop of Canterbury is going to resign next year. At least that’s the story making the rounds of newspapers in London, and the interesting part is not that the 61-year-old Rowan Williams should be willing to give up another decade in the job. Or even, if the Telegraph is right, that the clergy and his fellow bishops are working to push him out.

No, the interesting news about the looming resignation is how little attention anyone appears to be paying to it. The Church of England just doesn’t seem to matter all that much, fading from the world’s stage only slightly more slowly than the British Empire that planted it across the globe...

Anglicanism remains widespread, with 80 million members around the world, from the Episcopal Church in the United States to the followers of Henry Luke Orombi, archbishop of Uganda. England is still the largest Anglican province, with 26 million members, at least nominally. But far more Anglicans are in church on a Sunday morning in Kenya and Nigeria than in Britain, and the center of Anglican belief is now firmly in Africa—a major part, as Philip Jenkins noted in his 2002 book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, of the nearly complete conversion of sub-Saharan Africa to Christianity over the last 100 years.

The rise of the African church could have made Canterbury an important player in international relations—not exactly a rival to Rome (Catholicism’s one billion adherents make that unlikely) but at least a second European center with which Africans would have felt a relation and to which they could have looked for intellectual and ecclesial authority.

What the archbishop of Canterbury needed to hold together was a church divided between such African heroes of the faith as the retired archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, and such established masters of the Anglican bureaucracy as the primate of the Church of Canada, Fred Hiltz. On issues from the legality of abortion to the installation of female bishops and, especially, church ceremonies for gay marriage and the consecration of openly gay priests, the difference between the conservative African churches and the radical Western churches—between, say, Nicholas Okoh, Anglican primate of Nigeria, and Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States—is unbridgeable.

The current archbishop is a cultivated, intelligent man: a published poet and literary figure with theological sophistication and a talent for administration. Rowan Williams never possessed either the international star-power of someone like John Paul II or the intellectual depth of Benedict XVI. Still, he has more or less succeeded in his decade-long attempt to hold Anglicanism together with a kind of quiet, British suasion.

He pursued that end, however, mostly by trying to make himself an utterly neutral figure, beginning his reign as archbishop, for example, by leaving the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, an important British pro-life group. And his Laodicean pose has led him into such inanities as his 2008 call to enact some form of the “unavoidable” sharia law in Great Britain—even while his fellow Anglicans in Nigeria were being attacked by Muslim mobs.

(The liberal bishops of the liberal northern, western hemisphere are) demanding that all churches in the communion embrace their views on human sexuality. In all likelihood, the forcing of the issue of same-sex marriage will lead the African churches to withdraw from communion with the Western churches—while the churches of Europe and North America will denounce the African churches, choosing allegiance with standard-issue Western liberalism over the orthodox teaching of their own faith.

And thereby the world will lose one more of the old ties that might have bound it together. Freed from their African anchor, the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in America will move even further in a pro-Muslim, anti-Israel direction, providing yet more cover for fashionable liberal anti-Semitism. Let loose from their allegiance to Canterbury, the African churches will quickly move toward forming pan-African denominations that will feel entirely distanced from Europe and America—and will help build the belief the global South owes nothing to the West.

My final comment: If liberal Catholics get their way, what is happening to the Anglican Communion will happen to the Catholic Church. Liberals,especially politically motivated Catholic liberals, want this because this is the agenda of godless secularism well pursued by Western Europe and now afflicting America. Liberals are not about God or immutable truth, they are about politics and godless secularism that pushes the true God into the private sphere and into fragmented congregationalism that can in no way influence politics, elections or the direction of the world. Liberals are satisfied with that, just as long as the poor are cared for, the earth is not warming too much and the wealth is evenly distributed and government is god.

WHATEVER HAPPEN TO LARGE CATHOLIC FAMILIES? ARTIFICIAL BIRTH CONTROL AS MEDICINE WHEN CHILDREN ARE SEEN AS A DISEASE NOT A GIFT FROM GOD

2011-12-10T16:42:00.002-05:00

From Catholic World News: Michigan bishop explains how contraception decimates parishes

In an interview with Catholic World Report, Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Michigan, sees contraception as a major cause for the deterioration of American Catholic parishes.

Bishop Sample, who was ordained a bishop at the age of 50, describes himself as a member of “the first lost generation of poor catechesis.” He spoke with Catholic World Report about the critical need to restore proper religious education in order to bring young people back to the active practice of the faith.

When asked whether the prevalence of contraceptive use is a problem for the Church, Bishop Sample responded clearly:

Absolutely. Not everyone wants to talk about it, but that is a clear factor in the decline of the Catholic community. When I speak to my pastors, I hear them ask, “Where are the children?” We’re struggling to keep our Catholic school population up. This is true in our public schools as well.

My pastors want to have flourishing schools, but the children just aren’t there to fill them. Couples are using artificial contraceptives to limit the size of their families, and sterilization is also becoming a common practice. Families think they have the number of children they want, and then close off any further openness to life that God might want to bring into their family.

My comments:
Two weeks ago, I baptized the 9th baby of one of our families. The next day, I welcomed back another family who have moved away, but returned to the parish. The mother had a newborn in her arms, her 11th child.
On Thursday night's 7:00 PM Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception another one of our families with 9 children sat with the two other families for a total of 35 children and adults from three families!

Now, if I could only convince them to use our Catholic school rather than home school. But therein lies the rub, those who are using Catholic home schooling curriculum are the ones who live their Catholic lives like large Catholic families in the 1950's. They lead disciplined Catholic lives.

How did we as parishes and Catholic schools lose that? It is more than just the contraceptive mentality. It has a great deal to do with what the good bishop says above my comments!

SOMETIMES 1960'S HIP THEOLOGY JUST CAN'T BE RECAPTURED AND WHEN YOU TRY IT IS SAD, NOT FUNNY

2011-12-10T14:07:00.005-05:00

When I was in the seminary in the 1970's Godspell was still popular and we were being taught that any masculine pronouns to describe God or common humanity (man) were forbidden and in an infallible way, even as it concerns proper English grammar. We were to change these horrible masculine terms for God and neuter them.

The National Catholic Reporter has a review on the revival of Godspell on Broadway. The reviewer is not kind and in the following paragraph seems to get it right:

“Godspell” is showing its age, at least as represented by director Daniel Goldstein’s production at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre. This first Broadway revival of the beloved 1971 “rock musical” might be compared to a middle-aged person trying to recapture youth. In people the result is sad to see, but here it’s just boring."

But then she goes off in the caricature she decries and laments that masculine terms for God were NOT neutered among other aging hippie concerns of certain Catholics of a certain age today.

It reminded me of Robert Kumpel's comments on the previous post:

The biggest enemies of the return to tradition are aging Catholics. They cannot let go of their 60's and 70's mentality and seem to believe that the only true tradition is the "revolution" imposed upon us in 1970. Strangely, it is younger people who are more disposed and open to tradition and open to the new translation of the Mass.

Why can't the older people have more respect for THEIR elders, namely the Holy Father and the Fathers of the Church?

I think we are seeing the wacked out 60's movement of aging priests, religious and laity staging their final attack against those who dare to call them to task for their novelty and 60's "do your own thing" generation which came to be called the "me generation."

Isn't it time to move on. As hard as it was to say goodbye to Bob Barker on the Price is Right, good old Drew Carey is carrying on (no pun intended) just fine.

The fact of the matter is that we have moved on and those who are still chanting Godspell songs are the caricature of the NCR article above of these oldsters trying to recapture their lost youth and theology.

I HOPE GOD HAS A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR, BUT OF COURSE, HE CREATED US!

2011-12-10T10:15:00.003-05:00

So I flubbed some things at this morning at Saturday Mass with the corrected English translation. I reverted back to "cup" when I should have said chalice, but that is nothing compared to what I heard when I dismissed the congregation at the end of Mass.

I chose option "B" for the dismissal:

"Go and announce the Gospel of of the Lord."

And some responded:

"Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ!"

CONTRARY TO MY PREVIOUS CATECHESIS, IF YOU CAN HEAR, FOLLOW THE MASS TOO WITH YOUR PRAYER MISSAL OR MISSALETTE!

2011-12-10T08:54:00.003-05:00

I used to teach people about their participation in the Mass that they should NOT follow the Mass in their missal as the Mass is meant to be watched with one's eyes. Unlike the EF Mass where you need the missal for the English translation, you don't for the vernacular OF Mass which then frees you from following in the missalette.

But those professional liturgists of the 1970's who were trying to deconstruct and re-imagine the Catholic Church wanted a more spontaneous, homegrown, inculturated Mass. So priests were encouraged to ad lib and make up their own prayers or fiddle with this, that or the other, despite the very strict prohibition of that from the documents of Vatican II and subsequent authoritative prohibitions.

These professional liturgists knew what they were doing. If Catholics didn't follow in a worship aid, they wouldn't know how the lectors or deacons or priests were making things up as they go and then wouldn't report them to the parish Liturgy committee and when that failed to rectify things since these committees were in tandem with the professional liturgists. Then they would have to go to diocesan liturgical commissions which where as sensitive to these concerns as the parish clones. The only one left would be the bishop himself and then the Vatican, professional liturgist's true enemy.

So taking away worship aids that have all the prayers of the Mass in them was like the frog in the crock pot, before he knew it he was cooked, but didn't realize it was happening. The same with the laity, before they knew it, they thought all the changes that the lectors were making to masculine imagery in the scriptures were official as well as the ad libs of the deacons and priests.

I use to teach that only those who who couldn't hear or understand because of the loss of hearing or bad acoustics should use a worship aid to follow the Mass.

But now I say that if one can hear, all the more reason to follow along so as to expect and demand the Liturgy of the Church, not anything the lector, deacon or priest makes up.

We should all expect everyone, clergy and laity alike, to "Say the Black and Do the Red!"

Now, changing gears only slightly, Did you know that there was a 1998 revision of the Roman Mass that was rejected by the Vatican after it was approved by English speaking bishops? And that rejection led to Liturgiam Authenticum which asked that a dynamic literal approach be taken in translating the Mass from the official Latin into vernacular languages? The 1998 while better than the 1970 translation was still more of the same and even tinkered with the order of the Mass for English speaking Catholics, a tinkering that wasn't in the official Latin Missal. In addition to that, the 1998 missal continued the now defunct "alternative" choice for the opening collect, all of which were new compositions not in the official Latin text. This was allowed for the 1970 sacramentary in English and for the proposed 1998 one, but forbidden by Liturgiam Authenticum.

Here's an example of what could have been prayed the First Sunday of Advent as an alternative opening Collect if the 1998 missal had been approved for official use by the Vatican. What do you think?

Let us pray:

Above the clamor of our violence
your Word of truth resounds,
O God of majesty and power.
Over the nations enshrouded in despair
your justice dawns.

Grant your household
a discerning spirit and a watchful eye
to perceive the hour in which we live.
Hasten the advent of that Day
when the weapons of war shall be banished,
our deeds of darkness cast off,
and all your scattered children gathered into one.

We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose Day draws near:
your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

CONFLICTED IN MACON

2011-12-09T14:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I celebrated three wonderful Masses for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Two were in the marvelous corrected English translation that is already producing much fruit and renewed reverence for the Sacred Mysteries.

The other one was the EF Low Mass. Although I could have encouraged the congregation to sing an opening and closing Marian hymn, we simply spoke the texts of this Mass.

While I like Latin and have enjoyed celebrating the Latin Mass, I constantly wonder why in the name of God we can't do parts of it in English like everything the laity hears and speaks. I wouldn't request any change but that.

We had a large group for the EF Mass and so ahead of time I went out and reminded them that they could participate with every part of the Mass that the Altar Servers respond. But quite frankly it is difficult for many to speak the Latin out loud and I suspect they are self-conscious.

I really think that more people would avail themselves to the EF Mass if only the Holy Father would allow the vernacular for the laity's parts that they hear, speak or sing.