So what does the average St. Louis Catholic think about his Ordinary?

Well, just so we don't all lose our focus and see a near term success in the culture war, we might spend a few minutes reading the comments to this story about Abp. Burke's rather....episcopal...reaction to SLU coach Rick Majerus's antics (there are almost 500 of them).

The article is stupid and misleading of course...who would expect otherwise from an outlet run by Ted Turner? But the comments are useful, because they give insight into what the "Joe Six-Packs" in St. Louis and elsewhere think about a bishop who dares to do his job. And they help us come to grips with just how far gone the culture is, and just how effective the Vatican II "pastoral" approach has been in forming Catholics and influencing non-Catholics.

"It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith."

So says, British MP Barry Sheerman, presumably with a straight face. State subsidies for Catholic schools are under fire in Britain because certain (but not all) Catholic Bishops in Britain are acting in ways which vaguely resemble...Catholic Bishops.

Much can be said about the danger state subsidies would pose to Catholic schools here in the US, when we think about vouchers and the strings that would be attached to them.

But I think much more could be said about the fact that so many prelates and educators in Catholic schools....and for that matter, so many parents of Catholic school children, especially ones I know here in Kansas City...would say the same thing.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis

Word comes to us that Msgr. Heliodore Mejak, for over 63 years the pastor at Holy Family Parish in KCK, passed away on Christmas Day.


Msgr. Mejak was reported to be the longest-serving pastor in the world, and only the SECOND pastor to serve in the parish since its formation in the 1920s.


Deus, qui inter apostolicos Sacerdotes, famulum tuum Heliodore, sacerdotali fecisti dignitate vigere: praesta quaesumus; ut eorum quote perpetuo aggregetur consortio.


O God, Who wast pleased to raise Heliodore, Thy servant, to the dignity of the priesthood: vouchsafe to number him with They bishops and priests for evermore.


Msgr. Mejak was always friendly to traddies, and was a calm port in the ecclesiastical storm of the 1970s for many in Kansas City.


No details on funeral arrangements.

Oh yeah, and "Happy Holidays"

Well, I'll wish you the same devious, intolerant, insensitive greetings I've been wishing everyone, including my Jewish friends, all week:

Merry Christmas, and a Blessed New Year!

Two currents of work in women's religious communities...

Well, while we're gratified to see some young women's communities organizing and growing and bringing new Graces into Holy Mother Church, we're not surprised how little some of the older communities, flush with the spirit of Vatican II, have left to contribute:

Nuns leave their brains to science

Seriously, perhaps the neurologists studying those brains can find the "spirit of Vatican II" switch and come up with a way to turn it off before their whole orders disappear.

Malessere?

The answer to the problem, of course is to unwind the masonic revolution that has brough Italy great miseries and small ones over the last 130 years, and to restore the Papal States.

A nugget from Frank Sheed.

Nope, I' m still not really blogging again; too much real life, and too much reading to do.

But the reading is much more rewarding. Finally getting through Frank J. Sheed's Society and Sanity (1953), which I've had for over a year and just hadn't gotten through.

Here's a nuggest from pp. 181-82, which my prottie and flag-wavin' Neo-Catholic friends need to digest:

At the moment the sky is filled with the clang of battle between Totalitarianism and Democracy. In fact, there is no opposition between them. They are answers to two different questions.

Totalitarianism is an answer to the question, "What things are Ceasar's?"--the answer it gives being that all things whatsoever are Caesar's, that the State's right of control is unlimited, that the citizen has no rights against the State, no part of life that is simply his own.

Democracy is an answer to the question "Who is Caesar?"--the answer it gives being that Caesar is whomever the People elects.

Obviously there is no necessary opposition between them. One State might easily give both answers. It might decide that authority resides in the People, and that the People elects its government and can change its goverment. And it might also decide that there is no limit to the People's control, throught that elected and dismissible goverment, over the life of the individual, that, for what is conceived to be the good of the totality, the individualmay be totally regimented. There is no paradox here, no improbability even. A government which can claim to be doing what the majority of the people think best can interfere in the life of citizens as the most absolute tyrant could not: it was not an autocrat who in this century imposed Prohibition upon a great people: no autocrat would have dared. In fact control by government is spreading so fast in the democracies that the distinction already noted between the two main times of social authority has less meaning that of old, and Caesar is as good a symbol for one as the other.

Yes, one very clear explication that supports my view that I'd rather live under an autocrat like Franco that the current Spanish democracy, of for that matter, the current U.S. democracy. God bless Franco.

A friend from Montana has repeatedly recommended this book, and it's wonderful. A shame it's not in print, and you can count on Sheed & Ward, Frank's own publishing house, now run by leftists, be be sure it stays out of print.

Remember the Generalissimo!

The bastard socialists who've taken over Spain are still busy at work, rewriting history and stirring up hatred against the man that saved Catholic Spain (or at least prolonged its life 70 years) and probably saved all of Western Europe from revolutionary barbarians (or at least prolonged its life 80 years).

The ruling party, which is well into its campaign of subtle persecution of faithful Spaniards and Holy Mother Church, has passed a law condemning Francisco Franco.

Ah, it's hard to remember that God knows why he put me here, now, instead of among the Carlists of Spain in 1936. Oh, to have such a noble cause, and to have contributed to its success! Well, I guess if He'd have also had to have given me a better facility in Spanish (worst grades in elementary school) and make me a better shot, too. But to think I might have been there and gotten a shot off at commie Ernest Hemmingway!!!

Hey Lady, that ain't a breadbox you just walked by!

So I'm in St. Louis earlier this week and I find myself across the street from the Old Cathedral with a half-hour to myself. A nice opportunity to go spend some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament in the same church from which Fr. DeSmet and countless other Catholic missionaries departed to bring the Faith to the American West.

So I slip over there.

I tug on the door, and it's open. And I'm pleased to see that there's some semblance of order and tradition in the arrangement of the place. Some goofy stuff here and there (the ambo, for instance), but still an altar rail, and a central tabernacle, and a raised altar on which a traditional Mass could be celebrated...still obviously Catholic.


And so I'm rather settled in before the Real Presence there, and I'm midway through the mystery of the Presentation when this older, heavy-set woman in a sleeveless shirt comes wandering out of the sacristy, across the sanctuary, and kicks herself over the velvet rope spanning the central gap in the altar rail. She comes down to me and tells me (with maybe slightly more regard as she just showed our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament) that I'll have to go; she's locking up. I watched her waddle back to the Church and hold the door open waiting on me to leave (again with nary a glance at the tabernacle).


Somehow I bit my tongue, but now I wished I wouldn't have. HEY LADY, THAT AIN'T A BREADBOX YOU JUST WALKED BY, that's the Creator and the Saviour of the World, Who humbled Himself to become a creature. And you can't even humble yourself acknowledge His presence with even so much as a novus-ordo nod to the tabernacle?

Or perhaps, despite the burning sanctuary lamp, He wasn't there at all? Maybe she knows something I don't about the way the sacraments are "celebrated" there? If so, at least she didn't give Him any offense, and it really was just a fancy breadbox.


Argh. Once again I'm reminded of the state of the rest of the Church. God bless Archbishop Burke for trying to restore the Faith in St. Louis, but what regard can people have for the Church when they have no regard for her Founder? Especially people who apparently have some role to play in the upkeep of a holy place that's been designated Bascilica?



I'm not sure I could ever go back in the Old Cathedral now. Next time I'll find a full hour and drive down to St. Francis de Sales.

Carnahan's Still on the Devil's Payroll

Ah, yes...we remember way back to the year 2006, when Robin Carnahan, Satan's apprentice in the Missouri Secretary of State's office, did her part to further the culture of death by assuring that the people of Missouri got a misleading ballot summary of Amendment 2, the Clone-n-Kill initiative. She managed to fool enough people so that (although the initiative's support declined week after week as people learned the truth in the runup to the election) just enough people pulled the lever in Missouri to make sure our own little Island of Dr. Moreau could stay in business. Of course, she did have a little help, to the tune of $30 million from baby-killin' billionaire Jim Stowers. But she did her part by making sure that Missouri voters couldn't tell that the state was redefining "cloning" to mean something that it did not.

And now we fast-forward to the fall of 2007, to learn that Robin's being even more bold. She's taken THIS and written ballot language describing it as a proposal "to repeal the current ban on human cloning or attempted cloning."

OFFICIAL BALLOT TITLE AS CERTIFIED BY SECRETARY OF STATE

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to repeal the current ban on human cloning or attempted cloning and to limit Missouri patients’ access to stem cell research, therapies and cures approved by voters in November 2006 by:

• redefining the ban on human cloning or attempted cloning to criminalize and impose civil penalties for some currently allowed research, therapies and cures; and
• prohibiting hospitals or other institutions from using public funds to conduct such research?

This proposal could have a significant negative fiscal impact on state and local governmental entities due to its prohibition of certain research activities. However, the total costs to state and local governmental entities are unknown.

Of course she'll get away with it. The Missouri courts earned their thirty pieces of silver last time and made sure the challenge to present the proposal fairly and honestly was quashed. And there's no reason to think they won't oblige again.

At this point the Enemy and his instruments are so drunk with his own success, and has gained so much confidence, that they're not even trying to cover their movements anymore.

Middle Schoolers Need Protection

Let's see:

McCarthy, the principal, said he sympathizes with those who have reservations about the program. "I think it makes people nervous to think middle school students are having sex. Frankly, it makes me nervous. But there's a small population out there that needs protection," he said.

Damned straight, they need protection. That protection could involve vigilant teacher during the day, a responsible older sibling after school, and a father at home in the evening (you know, the kind father who keeps a 12-gauge in the closet and a castrating clamp in the workshed*).

But of course, that's not the sort of protection they propose.

--Curmudgeon

*actually, I guess I'm not that kind of father. The shotgun currently in my closet is only a 20 gauge, and we band our cattle. We don't have a clamp. I don't think that banding will work on male creatures who have opposable thumbs. I'll have to get the right equipment if Eldest ends up in public school.

How to be wrong when you're right...

Apparently there's a guy named Bill O'Reilly who's a big deal on some TV news channel I don't watch and on some syndicated radio show that I don't listen to. I've seen him or heard him a couple of times in passing. He's apparently a self-identified Catholic, too, who's quite eager to peddle the distortions of his own ill-formed conscience as superior to Catholic teaching. And beyond that, he's an incomparable blowhard bore.

From what I've seen, he makes Rush Limbaugh seem like Russell Kirk.*

Well, anyways, he's apparently weighed in on the homosexual infiltration of Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco, where last week Archbishop Neiderauer committed sacrilege by giving the Blessed Sacrament to a couple of flamboyant sodomites who are apparently part of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence." Bill is apparently outraged that these guys invaded and desecrated a Church.

What an idiot! They didn't invade! They were invited and welcomed there. As all of us who ever pay any attention to the news of the Church know, heck, they used to have functions at Most Holy Redeemer! And the Archbishop who committed the sacrilege is complicit in the promotion of their sodomite agenda.

And apparently some of the folks who got that Archbishop appointed are more than complicit in the promotion of the sodomite agenda, but that's another story.

Anyways, back at this Bill O'Reilly character. Sheesh. A big fancy network and a staff of several (if not dozens of) people, and they can't check facts? Is that all it takes to be on the TV and make a bunch of money? Heck, I can do that, and I can direct the outrage where it truly belongs.

In the meantime, I'll just go back to my book about Fr. DeSmet.

--Curmudgeon

*For those of you who don't know, Russell Kirk was the thoughtful, exceptionally well-read man who deserves the most credit for starting the modern conservative movement....back when there was still something worth conserving.

Mrs. Curmudgeon's gone noodlin'

Mrs. Curmudgeon does keep up with going's on in the devil's playground of Lawrence and regularly looks at the Lawrence Urinal World.

And yesterday, she read a story about something she'd like to try, noodlin'.

Frankly, if my family were starving, I'd give it a try, as part of my paternal duty.

But otherwise, forget it.

I'll just get my Lawrence repast as Joes Bakery. Mmm. Hot Glazed NOW. Or then again, maybe I won't.

Seriously, though, for the cracks one makes about the Lawrence paper, I guess you've got to compare it to the Kansas City Star. Sure, Dolph's little paper is wrong more than it's right, but it's at least more readable than the Star. The well-written noodlin' article is a case in point. Just try to find tight, clever writing like that in the Star. And the news is actually meaningful. Knowing that Joe's Bakery is closed down is far more useful than any of the crap they put in the Star FYI section. Now I know to head straight for Munchers (which, frankly, I was inclined to do anyways. The cream cheese doughnut at Munchers beats even the hottest, fresh-from-the-oil glazed at Joes).

The most evident mark of God's anger

Three little excerpts:

First, :

Archbishop George Niederauer gave Holy Communion to two men dressed in drag as nuns during an Oct. 7 visit to Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco, witnesses who attended the Mass told California Catholic Daily.

Second:

The most evident mark of God's anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. Instead of nourishing those committed to their care, they rend and devour them brutally. Instead of leading their people to God, they drag Christian souls into hell in their train. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its innocuous poison and its murky darkness....

Third:

WASHINGTON (October 11, 2007)—Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Jaime Soto, Auxiliary Bishop of Orange, California, to be Coadjutor Bishop of Sacramento, California. Bishop Soto is 51. The appointment as coadjutor bishop confers on Bishop Soto the right to succession to Bishop William K. Weigand of Sacramento. Bishop Weigand is 70.

There's little more to say.

Oh, little more except this, from Diogenes at the CWNews blog, quoting Bp. Soto:

Fourth:

Chris Andersen's present difficulties pain me very much not only because he is a friend but also because he is an associate in the ministry. Our works brings us into intimate contact with people's lives. In a time when the exchange of simple affections within the most intimate of circles has become a rare commodity, our associations with others run the grave risk of being misunderstood by all parties including perhaps the priest himself [OTR's emphasis]. There is cause therefore to exercise prudence and right judgment while at the same time pursuing the mission of Church to bring healing and comfort. If Chris has failed in exercising such prudence or has in fact abused the privilege provided him by the people of God I would the hope the court would seek some remedial means of dealing with the case at hand as opposed to extensive incarceration.

Fifth, from St. John Eudes:

The most evident mark of God's anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. Instead of nourishing those committed to their care, they rend and devour them brutally. Instead of leading their people to God, they drag Christian souls into hell in their train. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its innocuous poison and its murky darkness....

How on earth can a Catholic remain in God-forsaken California? Jeff, seriously. How?

No friend of the OKC Traddies

Fr. Jack Feehily, in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, apparently can't wait to add his screed to the dunghill of motu proprio criticism. You might have missed it, but an OKC local pointed it out to me. On page 13 of the current issue of the diocesan newspaper, the Sooner Catholic, he complains to the editor about the paper's announcement of a Solemn High Mass in Kingfisher. Apparently, Fr. Feehily thinks publicity for the traditional Mass is verboten. And he repeats the usual, insulting crap about how there's no active participation in our little nostalgic exercise.

Not remarkable: I'm just posting a link to it because it might otherwise be missed.

Yet further proof that Holy Orders is no cure for idiocy or deviousness, whichever may be the motivating force in this case. Naturally he omitted fact that the Mass that "came about as the result of a great church council" was concocted by a freemason and protestants, and was (to quote somebody with a little more clout than Fr. Feehily) "a banal, on-the-spot product," and he of course omitted the fact that the codification of the Mass that saved Holy Mother Church from the heresies of the Protestant Revolt came out of a far more august and important council, Trent.

And hey, when he says "there can be no going back," I'm sure his congregation of one- and two-child families, who catch Mass whenever it doesn't interfere with soccer tournaments, would agree. But it won't be long until the large families of backwards, nostalgia-addled traddies outnumber the likes of his. Of course, he ends with a statement that the newfangled Mass is a call "to transform the world." Nevermind how the world has transformed the new Mass or the bulk of the Church, eh?

Well, were I in OKC, I'd issue a challenge: pick three kids and three grownups at random out of Father Feehily's congregation. Pick three kids and three grownups out of the traddie community, again at random. Then quiz each on what's happening at Mass. Keep going and quiz them on their catechism. I think we'll know then who's getting more out of Mass.

But of course, then, I'm sure Fr. Feehily would much rather take refuge in his glittering generalities and his certitude that somehow modern man has figured out (in between soccer games and Star Trek reruns) something new about his faith--something that was completely missed by the thousands of martyrs and saints that preceded us.

Traditional . . . er . . . "extraordinary" Mass in Oklahoma City

Mrs. Curmudgeon and I had reason to be in Oklahoma City this Sunday morning (the reason being our desire to avoid the handholding and kumbaya crowd at an "ordinary" Mass in the city we'd been visiting over the weekend). So, we got up early, drove to OKC, and assisted at the 11am low Mass at St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, the FSSP apostolate in the Bethany, Oklahoma. Now we can add Oklahoma City to our list of traditional communities we've visited (joining it with the communities in DC, Rockford, Sacramento, Phoenix, San Diego and Denver).

We just barely made it to Mass on time: our Mapquest directions led us to a dead end in a trailer park. But with a little luck and a little help from some guy resting under a tree at a protestant university's athletic complex, we made it in time.


What a neat place, and what a neat story! Apparently (said one of the locals), the grounds of the Church were once the clubhouse and entrance area to a golf course, but the course had been flooded decades ago by the Corps of Engineers on a reservoir project. A parishioner had purchased the grounds, including the clubhouse, many years ago, and he's given a substantial portion of it over to the use of the traditional community there, which has constructed a small chapel and, I understand, have rehabilitated the clubhouse for use as classrooms and social space. The grounds are beautiful, with a little pond and lots of flowering trees and shrubs. And the chapel is attractive as well. The chapel is small, seating maybe 100 in the nave and another 20 or 30 in the vestibule/cryroom and choir loft. It's small enough that a PA system at the ambo is entirely unnecessary. They've integrated and old altar and side niches into the new building, and they've got some attractive new stained glass.

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get interior pictures; by the time I retreived my camera phone, baptismal rites had started in the vestibule. And I'm sorry I didn't have a decent camera with me; we left it at home, but I figured that a couple of phone pics were better than none.

All told, the community's facilities are to be envied. The setting is beautiful, and safe, and controlled (very much unlike our own setting at Blessed Sacrament). The church is very attractive, too, but also (even moreso than with Denver or Sacramento) too small and destined to be quickly outgrown: no more than four or six altar boys could be in the sanctuary at any one time, and we'd need five or six Masses on Sunday to get everyone into the small nave. However, it's a great start, and most importantly, it's theirs to use, without working around extra unnecessary furniture, or scheduling conflicts, or special permissions before such uncontroversial tasks as weeding the flowerbeds, or any of the other stuff that goes along with being tenants in someone else's church.


And of course, people naturally ask what the Mass was like. It was, happily, just a nice low Mass, celebrated reverently by the new assistant chaplain there (with a charming British accent that I didn't pick up until the Leonine prayers). No surprises at all (nor should there be). A solid sermon on love and lust was preached by the chaplain (who, it's obvious, learned to preach from the same folks my own chaplain did). Granted, the chaplain (who couldn't be older than me) lost some credibility by claim to be "an old priest" with "years of marriage preparation counselling." But they were otherwise great. Perhaps I liked the sermon so much because it vindicated by own intention to arrange a marriage for the Eldest Curmudgeon (who, at age 5, still accepts that fact that I get to pick her husband if she has a married vocation).


All and all, a great place to visit. I wish that Mrs. Curmudgeon and I had been able to get to OKC to attend the earlier Missa Cantata, socialize a bit with the OKC Traddies and catch up with some old friends who moved there from the Kansas City SRPD community.