Author Archives: Harvey Millican

Mundabor has a great post up today. When does he not? Check it out here.

Essentially, Arthur Roche, the ex-figure skater and current “liturgical czar” of the Vatican machine was bitching recently that a number of traditionalist bloggers are having such an influence on seminarians of all people. Corrupting the minds of the young men studying for priesthood is, of course, his job, dammit.

Although I would be honored to be numbered among those afflicting the would-be rapists of the Bride of Christ, I did not know until today that simply being a trad dad blogger put me in such rarified air. There are hundreds of others who do what I do and do it so much better; but, as they say in Hollywood, “It is an honor just to be nominated.”

Mundabor rightly points out that there are so many of us because the problem is so evident that we cannot not speak up against the obvious.

But one thing the Roche said in particular did catch my eye.

Keyboard warriors? You are right my triple-axel friend. We are warriors. We’re fighting. We’re fighting for something we believe in enough to die for, for Someone and that Someone’s rightful worship.

Also, I wonder if they’re all working with the same script. Although I haven’t heard from any seminarians reading this blog yet, I do hear from priests. Most are supportive. But I’ve also heard from a chancery official or two who have accused me of being a, wait for it, “keyboard warrior“.

I suppose I should feel threatened or something. I can’t make it around the rink without holding onto the rail after all and this guy fancies himself Dick Button in a rochet. But I do recognize the truth and I will continue to write what I observe now and what I have observed after years of working with men of your reprehensible ilk. And to the sems reading this, I was once in your shoes. If you ever want to reach out to me, use your data or hotspot because they will track it. But know that I am praying for you.

A bizarre story came to me this morning from a friend back home. We’ll call him Friend A. He had gone to breakfast after the high Mass with his wife, their two young sons, and a lifelong friend (Friend B) and that friend’s wife. My friend and his family seem to be on the same trajectory that I’ve been on these past few years. In other words, we were the prisoners in the cave who were taken up to the surface, blinded and hurt by the light, and now, realizing the reality of the truth in the light of day, find it hard to go back to the cave except to tell the others. My friend’s friend is not quite there yet.

The two couples had met for breakfast after attending Mass in their respective parishes. Friend A has been on Friend B’s case for a while now to come over to Tradition. Friend B has been hesitant. He’s been on a unicorn hunt for some time now, trying to capture that elusive “reverent Novus Ordo”. And he thought he had found it too! He informed Friend A that he had been really enjoying his current parish and that the priest there was “manly”. Keep in mind that this word can mean different things to different people. But, he assured Friend A that the Mass in that parish was just great.

This morning Friend A asked Friend B, “So, how’s that priest you like so much?”

“Ugh… We had to stop going there,” came the reply.

Inquiring as to what had happened, Friend A was dumbfounded to discover the answer.

It turns out that Friend B had gone to his priest for some spiritual direction not long ago. Now at this point in the story, I personally thought it was going to take a salacious turn. Instead what he heard was this.

“The priest informed me that he just doesn’t like the taste of wine and so when he pours the water and wine into the chalice, he puts, like, a drop of wine and then fills the rest with water.”

Salacious? No. Invalid? Very Likely.

On that note, I cannot conceive (and I could be completely and wildly off-base here) that wine which has been so watered down at a ratio of hundreds of parts to one, could actually still be considered wine. If that is the case then no consecration has taken place.

Friend B spoke to a priest of a traditional Society of Apostolic Life who informed him that he should report the abuse to the chancery at once. Here’s the deal, though… That chancery is in the Archdiocese of… wait for it… Newark!

So, friends in the four northeastern counties of the Garden State, keep a sharp eye peeled. Not sure what you can do about it but at least you should be on the lookout. Then again, I doubt many of the readers of this blog are attending this particular parish.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us!