Tag Archives: FSSP

The Clans…

Posted on April 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

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.

  1. For continued access to the daily Latin Mass
  2. 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!”

Virgin most pure, pray for us!

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TLM’s of the West Coast

Posted on August 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

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.

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Potential Dirty Deeds Afoot – Pray, Fast, and Have a Plan

Posted on July 24, 2022 | Leave a comment

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!

St. Peter, pray for us!

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The Four Sins that Cry for Vengeance in One Day? A Vignette of Family Life in the Age of Darkness

Posted on July 10, 2022 | Leave a comment

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.

Be strong.

Let us pray for one another.

Our Lady, Tower of Ivory, pray for us!

St. Joseph, model for men, pray for us!

Holy Guardian Angels, protect us!

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TLM Southeast Florida: Alligator Alley and the Latin Mass

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

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.

Bonus: Swamp Vid

These creatures are terrible.

Virgin Most Faithful, pray for us!

St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!

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TLM Atlanta: Mother Loves Us

Posted on June 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

We departed our beach house yesterday morning and headed for home. This morning I woke up in a hotel room in Atlanta, GA.

This morning began early. That’s because it’s Sunday. This was both a travel day (meaning, for us, we would drive about 800 miles) and the Lord’s Day (meaning we would move Heaven and earth to find a traditional Latin mass).

In the suburb of Mableton, GA, we attended the 8AM low mass for Pentecost in, drumroll please…

Another St. Francis de Sales parish!

Have I mentioned he’s the patron of writers and I think he’s stalking this writer?

This parish is run by our old friends, the FSSP and has been ensconced in this current property since the early 2000’s. I actually attended a daily mass here a year ago. The parish church is not huge but not particularly tiny either. So it surprised me that there was a sign in the parking lot indicating mass would be in the gym. After some searching we found said gym. Down a hill. A very long bill.

I surmise that the interior of the church building might be undergoing some renovations as the gym has, in addition to a few hundred folding chairs, a semi-permanent sanctuary space made out of finer polished oak and complete with a proper rail on three sides.

St. Francis de Sales, Mableton, GA. Picture taken last year on a different trip.

The priest who said mass preached a phenomenal homily, as is now expected by me of all Fraternity priests.

What really caught my attention, though, was the fact that every single person in attendance was properly attired. I will be writing on proper mass attire soon. But especially the men…

Suits.

Ties.

Hair neatly parted.

Like men.

Grown men.

Strong masculine men who love their wives and children and aren’t trying to show off but simply to look their level best for Christ and His sacrifice.

As I said, more on that to come. Just remember, this was Atlanta and there was a certain Gone With the Wind vibe to be felt.

I loved it.

And I truly loved that the great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy absolutely came through for me. I mentioned I had asked her prior to this trip to make Latin mass available to me every day. That she did.

Never doubt the love of a mother for her children. She wants only good things for us. She is happy when we want to kneel beside her as her Son gives Himself for our sins. I think of the many times in my life when my own ingratitude towards her Son’s sacrifice must have pierced her Immaculate Heart.

Never again.

Mother, give me to worship thy Son every day in His sacrifice!

And she did. And she will.

And He is only too happy to oblige anything she asks of Him.

Turn to her. She loves you.

Virgin most powerful, pray for us!

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Let Us All Step Backwards!

Posted on June 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

The incomparable Fr. Z. has a link to a video of a newly ordained FSSP priest giving his parents his first blessing. Check that out here.

Zulhsdorf accompanies the video with a bit of snarky editorializing. I happily expect nothing less. In his commentary, Fr. mocks the sentiments of those modernists who refer to us trads as “dangerous backward-steppers”.

This got me to thinking of a couple of important things.

1.) This is the first Friday of the month of June. June is the month of the Sacred Heart. MAKE THE DEVOTION OF THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS! Start today if you can. Make reparation to His Sacred Heart by receiving Him worthily in Holy Communion. This month has been co-opted by sodomites under the direction of Satan himself. They call it “pride”. We must empty ourselves and practice ever more the virtue of Calvary – humility.

2.) Our Lord died on the cross to give Himself to us. He awaits us daily in the tabernacle. He even allows His priests to place Him in a monstrance for us to come and adore. Fr. Malachi Martin once remarked that what sets the Catholic apart from all others is his intimacy with the divine. Again, MAKE THE DEVOTION OF THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS! Go to Him. Console Him in His agony borne for our sins. Tell Him your troubles. Honor His Mother. Give Him thanks. Spend an hour simply gazing upon His loveliness and wonder how the King of the Universe made Himself to be present for you in this way.

3.) When you visit our exposed King and it comes time to take your leave…

STEP BACKWARDS away from the monstrance. For heaven’s sake, if protocol demands we never turn our back on the Queen of England, how much more fitting to keep one’s eyes fixed on the Lord? Be a true “backwards-stepper”. You see, the more the enemies of Christ ridicule us for our devotional life and practices, the more we ought to serve it right back up at them.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

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