The logical conclusion to which I am drawn is this. If the “changes to Canon Law” now place the Prelature on the level of a Society of Apostolic life, does that mean Opus Dei has been knocked down a peg or has the FSSP, another Society of Apostolic Life, been elevated?
Furthermore this:
“It also further defined the role of the prelate as a “moderator endowed with the faculties of an ordinary’.”
This could be nothing but it’s not. Looks like the Fraternity might not ever get a bishop as they’ve so long been promised.
Developing.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Lucy’s Catholic Church/National Shrine of St. Gerard, Newark, NJ
Today I woke up in Georgetown, KY. Why, you ask, in this small town? Well, the tart Taylor Swift had a lot to do with that. You see, we were going to stay in Cincinnati last night, having met with some employees there for dinner. However due to the twit pop star staging some kind of writhing revival at the Bengals sportsball stadium, every hotel room in town and for thirty miles out was booked. So we stayed in Georgetown. Familiar Georgetown.
This hamlet lies 45 miles south along I-75 from Cincy. It is familiar to us because we stayed here thirteen months ago on another road trip. In fact, our hotel this time is literally next door to that from last year. We settled in for the night and went to sleep (after a few gin and tonics).
This morning we attended Holy Mass at St. Francis DeSales Mission. The weather was stormy. It rained a fair bit. This church, in the bluegrass countryside about fifteen minutes outside town, is, I believe, a Novus Ordo parish where the FSSP also celebrate Mass. See picture below.
I am happy to report that the church looked twice as full as it did a year ago. Fwincisss Effect. Our morning sacrifice ended, we puttered around. Did some laundry. Got some lunch. And then we headed to the Ark.
The Ark Experience, as it is officially known, is a supposedly to-scale re-creation of. Noah’s Ark. except that Noah didn’t charge damn near $300 for five people to enter and $15 for parking. I went mainly to see the engineering of the structure and I will tell you that it does not disappoint from that angle. Just be advised that the entire “museum” of the Ark is curated by fundamentalist Protestants and is almost entirely wrong. Oh well, you live and learn.
I saw the above image and my wife said, “Come on, people. June is over!” Remember that Satan inverts everything.
Also, I was surprised at how many dinosaurs Noah brought onto the Ark considering that dinosaurs didn’t exist. Don’t @ me.
Next up, St. Louis and the most beautiful parish church in all of the former United States.
Yesterday I posted about the possibility of the SSPX ordaining new bishops. I ended that post with my opinion that, come what may, the FSSP, ICK, et al. need to figure out a way to work with the SSPX going forward. I received a few very thoughtful emails from readers on the subject. For these I am grateful. One reader reminded me that this squabble has been going on for 30 years. She offered some very solid suggestions, among them that the SSPX give up on the idea that the FSSP are every going to go “bi-ritual”. Presumably, such a move on the part of the Fraternity would prove to the Society that the former are in the wrong. I did not even know that was a thing. The FSSP priests I know have never given any indication that they would remotely consider offering the Bugnini rites. But that is an interesting thought – what the writer of the email terms “revenge fantasy”. I totally see her point. I just did not know that was a sentiment among any members of the SSPX. She also suggests that the original FSSP priests who broke away from the SSPX need to stop being vilified by the Society. On this point, I can see what she’s talking about more clearly. And I see it in reverse as well. I have heard trads who attend an SSPX chapel refer to the Fraternity as “controlled opposition” and I have heard Fraternity priests (in fact, one of the original break-aways) speak of the SSPX in terms that are less than edifying (and, I believe, incorrect).
Comment sections are aglow with the embers of incendiary invective on this topic. What is anyone to believe? Cardinal Burke says the SSPX is schismatic. Bishop Schneider says they’re not. This priest says we should never attend their Masses. That priest (in the confessional) says, “It’s OK…” It seems to me that approaching the issue with a truly charitable heart requires adopting a little more tact and diplomacy all around. My standpoint? I have attended SSPX Masses in the past and will do so again if necessary. The first time I went into one of their chapels I was greeted with a framed picture of Bergoglio the Squatter, so if they’re schismatic from Fwancisss, they’re doing a terrible job of showing it. I remember during the lockdowns when the SSPX where the ONLY game in town. I was not yet where I am now and so I did not take the opportunity to avail myself. However, when that moment comes again, you can believe I will find them and attend the Roman Mass that I have a right to. For the moment, the point is moot as I have a wonderful parish staffed by the Fraternity at my daily disposal. But we all know a time is fast approaching when that will likely not be the case. Things will get shaken up. Men will have to drive their families farther, make more sacrifices. My friends in Northern Virginia are finding that out.Some will have no option whatsoever. My friends in Corpus Christi found that out.
For now, let us all continue daily to pray for two things.
For continued access to the daily Latin Mass
For an end to the terrible mess we’re in.
On that first point, I make sure to keep friendship as far as I am able with solid priests who offer the Gregorian Rites and with solid laymen with whom we can network when the fit hits the shan. On that second point, I ask the Blessed Mother daily in my rosary, begging her to: “Bring It ON!”
Regular readers will note that I typically drop in a picture of some species of sacred art or architecture into every post. I think it’s important to share our patrimony for the sake of studying the art itself.
All of the pictures to date, unless otherwise noted, are taken directly from my camera roll – meaning I took them myself because I have visited those places.
Today two of my friends sent in some photos. I would like to share them with you. If nothing else, you can see that there are options when you travel.
First up, the parish of St. Stephen the First Martyr in Sacramento, CA. This parish is run by the FSSP and has been described to me as the “original flagship of the Fraternity” before that spot was taken by Mater Dei in the Dallas area.
Next up is another west coast property – the parish of the Holy Innocents in North Long Beach, CA.
Pray that one day soon, all of our Catholic churches will once again look like Catholic churches.
I have heard too many things over the weekend from a variety of sources around the country pertaining to the coming suppression on the Latin Mass to not be concerned at a heightened level.
Without revealing details, I can say that additional bishops appear ready to drop the hammer on the former Ecclesia Dei communities who serve parishes in their sees. Furthermore, if what I’m hearing is correct, whole communities are essentially on the chopping block.
We’ve kind of known this was coming. What surprises me is the rapidity with which it appears to be happening. These bishops will hide behind a number of factors including, “Cupich made me” to “Fwancis made me” to “it’s for your own good because we need you to abandon that silly old-timey stuff.”
Be prepared. Have a plan. Go to confession and for heaven’s sake, stop committing mortal sins if you haven’t already. You do not know if that confession you made yesterday will be your last for a long time.
The Lord gave us a taste of this two years ago. Remember, bishops shut down the sacraments (many, before a single government entity “ordered” them to). Funny, but Our Lord is also giving us the great grace in these times to recognize the intellectually diminished on the spot. Used to be you’d meet a man and maybe after a few months would begin to realize he wasn’t that bright. Now, they wear face muzzles and I can know who to avoid on the spot.
But now the bishops seem ready to do it again only this time they want you to think you have a choice.
Read Quo Primum. There’s something in there about how priests need no special permission to offer the Mass (emphases mine):
“Furthermore, by these presents [this law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us.”
Seems to me a priest needs to remember his rights. Even a valid pope (which Bergoglio certainly is not) cannot take that away unless you let him. Boy this is pretty clear cut. I even ran it past a lawyer yesterday for clarification. Also, the V2 crowd made conscience their god. Well, Fathers, turn the tables. Tell them your conscience won’t allow you to violate this law.
St. Lucy’s Catholic Church/National Shrine of St. Gerard Majella, Newark, NJ
But we know that many of our good Fathers will cower and cave. Pray for them. If you find one who is stalwart, well, you know what you have to do.
God, through His Blessed Mother, will sort this out. And when it’s over, God willing, many of us may very well be saints.
More to come as I am given permission to discuss…
Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, have mercy on us!
I am so blessed In so many ways. Both my father and father-in-law are dead. That may seem morbid but… That also means I am both the son and the son-in-law of two widows. Two wonderful and incredible widows. And every day I get to offer my daily mass intention for my wife, children, and our mothers. Remember, abusing the widow is one of only four sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance. So conversely, caring for them must be the right thing to do. Fortunately I love caring for these two women who have both shaped me into the man I am. I live close to my mother-in-law. I see her every day at mass. I am 44 years-old yet I still learn from her. I respect her and honor her and teach my children to do the same. I live 1500 miles from my mom but I love her (obviously) and respect her and honor her and teach my children to do the same. They are both magnificent ladies and I am blessed that I can help pray for and care for them in any way God allows.
Today, Sunday, I got up and headed out of the condo we stayed at in Bonita Springs, Florida. We had been attending an FSSP parish for daily Mass while here. Their Sunday Masses are early so we decided to drive north toward Sarasota and visit the FSSP parish there for a 12:30 Mass. Don’t you know that their 12:30 was cancelled today? Trying to remember that as father I am sort of like the episcopal head of my household (at least according to Augustine), I stood up in the empty church and read the introit, epistle, and Gospel and then lead my family in a Latin rosary. We even chanted the Salve. Being after noon, we looked to find another TLM to attend. Unfortunately there were none.
Beautiful church even without mass. Christ the King (FSSP), Sarasota, FL
I go back and forth on this one but I asked my Guardian Angel to help me decide rightly. I even checked in with my nephew who is also my godson. He was partly instrumental in bringing his old godfather into the Latin Mass. Should we attempt a Novus Ordo? Even these options were limited. I looked online to find one parish with a 5PM Mass. They proudly proclaimed they had a “Ministry for Circus and Traveling Performers”. Im not joking. A literal “clown Mass”. The other church I found featured a picture of the pastor on their “Welcome Page”. He was an older man, wearing a white button down shirt and jacket and holding a shih tzu. So he’s clearly a fag. I made an honest effort to get my family to the mass of the ages and it was cancelled. No, I am under no obligation to worship God at a rite where He is mocked by faggotry and clowns.
Nonetheless, my mother-in-law wanted to receive Communion. Understandable. Later in the day, I drove her to the clown parish so she could do just that. I even entered the church and stayed through the homily. Here’s what I heard.
*Remember, the NO and TLM are in theory different forms of the same rite. Then again under the provisos of TC they’re not. Can anyone tell me what’s going on here? That’s right. There are two churches. Got it? Got it…
In the NO Mass, the Gospel was the Good Samaritan. I personally read the TLM Gospel so I know it was not that. The clown priest gave a sermon that was 25 minutes long. In it, he said that 1) we should stop treating animals like they’re just food and in this way we can be more like the Good Samaritan; 2) the Church should stop selling her monasteries and this is how we can prevent the drop in religious vocations; and 3) all the people sitting in the pews should teach their children to love God because He loves them and that this is how we stop the loss of faith.
Let’s. Review. This. Crap.
1) Animals (especially the tastier ones like cows) are food.
2) We can stop selling off monasteries but with no one to fill them they’re kind of wasted. Also we could stop buying condos in London. Just saying.
3) You don’t have to tell me precisely but I guarantee that every person in this church this evening (30 max and average age of 70) has children who are already grown and contracepted for years because priests told them it was fine and dandy. See how that works, Father?
Do I believe the clown priest validly confected the Eucharist? Yes. And that’s why I think God is not thrilled to have been called down on that particular altar. Or table.
On the plus side, my wife picked up an examination of conscience at the TLM parish. It was on the back table. We read it together during lunch. We had a good laugh. There was one for the “Mr.” and one for the “Mrs.”. The one for the Mrs. asked an awesome question.
“Do I tend to my husband’s needs in so far as ironing his shirts and hanging up his ties, jackets, and pipes?”
I love the fact that in 1954 (when this one was written) the assumption was that I would have more than one pipe needing to be hung up.
Note to self: buy more pipes.
We went to dinner at the end of this long day. We’re just outside Sarasota. It’s like Key West but minus the public man/man action. I didn’t want to use the word “faggotry” twice in one post. Also, thanks to Ann Barnhardt for coining that term in one of her podcasts. I use it daily. Our waitress was a doll. A working girl who worked hard and had a smile on her face the whole time. I tipped her very generously because to not do so when I can would be a sin.
Friends, it’s bad out there and getting worse. Say your prayers. Protect the widow and orphan. Stand up for the worker when he is being defrauded by Amazon and China and Joe Byron. Manfully represent your heterosexual (natural) family by truly loving your wife and kids and in-laws. Protect human life with all your strength. God gave you as men that power to do these things. Call upon His Holy Name and He will work through you and you will do marvelous things. I didn’t see anyone oppressing the poor outright today, but defend them too!
Be men. Be women. Married couples, love one another according to the dictates of Ephesians 5. And husbands, you damn well better be willing to die for your wives.
And let’s put a nice bow on it – wear a suit while you’re doing it. I did. It was from Brooks Brothers and I looked damn good all day.
I am so intrigued by the number of comments surrounding my posts about how I believe men should dress. I’d like to address some of them here.
A gentleman named Pavel commented on my last post. He stated that, “If you have no money, it is hard to dress right.” well, Pavel, that’s only half true. Let me explain.
As a home-schooled young man many years ago, I made many trips to the library. I’m talking about the actual library. This was in the early 1990’s, just prior to the internet’s ubiquitousness as we know it today. We had to do this thing called research. It involved card catalogs and microfiche and interacting with people behind desks. During one of my journeys downtown to the main branch (complete with actual stacks) I ended up taking out a book on etiquette. It was, in fact, the book on etiquette – Emily Post’s Etiquette.
I found it fascinating. Look, I was homeschooled. The freedom I was given over my own didache meant I could follow all kinds of interests. I saw the title on the shelf while looking for something else and was intrigued. So I checked it out.
The first lines of the book stood out to me not only because they made so much sense as to be self-evident, but also because they seemed contrary to everything I’d ever heard about the subject. I will paraphrase.
“Etiquette is nothing more than making the people around you as comfortable as possible within the bounds of good taste.”
That’s a great rule to live by. Miss Post herself was spelling out the formula right off the bat. It didn’t matter if you knew whether or not to extend a hand to a lady who hadn’t introduced herself first or whether you should use the tiny fork first. If you used your common sense and your cogitative powers and if your intention was to practice fraternal Charity (setting others at ease in a tense social setting), then you’ve already won. I have used that advice in life so many times it isn’t funny.
And good dress is like an extension of good manners.
Think about it.
1) Common Sense: dress appropriately for your state in life and the task at hand. I’ve talked a lot about wearing a jacket to daily mass. I would not wear that same jacket while digging a trench. Duh.
2) Cogitative Powers: Think before you dress. God gave you the ability to reason and to discern. Who are you? Where are you going? With whom will you interact? Pull it all together and make your decision. Is the thing I would like to wear outside the bounds of my budget? Then be prudent.
3) Fraternal Charity: This goes both ways. Dress in a way to put others at ease but also remember that others should never be offended when you’ve done your best. I’ve seen college students (proverbially poor) show up to events looking phenomenal because they wore the best of what they have and they held their heads high with dignity. I’ve also seen millionaires (in fact, a well known Catholic TV personality) show up to Sunday mass week after week dressed to golf – because that’s where he was going immediately after mass. The thing is, I knew he owned suits far nicer than mine. It bothered me.
Pavel, if you are short on cash at the moment, do not fret. Cleanliness and being your best do not cost a dime. I remember reading stories of the saints when I was a boy. I was amazed at how, for instance, the father of St. Catherine Laboure, despite laboring in the fields, kept one nice set of clothes to wear on Sunday. It wasn’t “fancy” but it was his best. Seriously, Pavel, email me and I’ll help you figure it out. More than anything, it’s an attitude.
So to drive home the point about the appropriateness of one’s attire… While traveling across the southern tip of Florida today we stopped in the Everglades and took a tour on a fan boat. Our pilot stopped within a few feet of a gator who hissed at me. I thought I would die. But for that excursion, I was in shorts, a tee shirt, and a ball cap. I was in a literal swamp.
I decided to name him Bergogli-gator. It just seemed like the thing to do.
Hours later, I found myself at St. Agnes church in Naples, FL. This is the location where Corpus Christi Latin Mass Parish has a daily Mass. I pulled into a gas station, went inside, and, you guessed it, changed into a shirt and trousers with a jacket. I’ve got one jacket with me this week as I travel light but it works for its purpose.
Also, the Mass was pretty well-attended. This makes me happy to see packed Latin Masses. I will be there every day this week. So for a fun experiment, if you also worship at this parish and you see a stranger in a light blue sports coat, don’t be afraid to approach him after mass and say hello. If, however, you think his writing is garbage, then approach the older lady in the veil seated nearby and tell her. That man’s mother-in-law will not mind at all. She just loves making new friends.
Folks, I got off all that social media nonsense a while ago. Sorry but I'm not on Twitbook, Facepalm, YouHu, WingWang or any of the others. Maybe an event will happen to make me change my mind like Peter and Paul coming down with flaming swords and commanding it be so. Until then, read the blog and if you feel a comment is in order or you feel like sharing a tip or suggestion for a topic, email me at harvey@harveymillican.com.
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 