Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Not at the Latin Mass: at a "more spiritual place"

Tom, our friend in Santa Fe, brings us this news item: his Archbishop, Michael Sheehan, successor to the great Abp. Lamy, tells us that a "marriage should be in a more spiritual place" than the one tiny church where he has granted what he considers to be "wide and generous" use of the traditional Mass:

You see, a wedding in the traditional rite, like a wedding at a lake or a wedding at the hotel which was once the Loretto hospital/orphanage complex until it abandoned by sisters when they went off to worship the Earth Spirit...such a wedding isn't likely to start "a marriage that will last with God's help throughout their lives."

You see, in the old days, Catholics got divorced frequently--at about the same rate as prots and non-Christians, but today, with the novus ordo wedding rite celebrated at places like that ugly church way out on St. Francis Drive (I forget the name, as it's been a while since I've been in Santa Fe), that's all solved. Few (if any) of the Catholic couples married since 1970 or so, in the new rite, have had failed marriages, and civil divorce and church annulments are uncommon.

Things are bad in Kansas City, but we can be thankful, at least, that they're not so bad as they are elsewhere. Our Archbishop (unlike Abp. Sheehan) hasn't shown himself (so far) to be personally at war with 1900 years of Christian Tradition or to be hopelessly under modernist influences. And even if he were, we can easily cross the border into Bp Finn's territory. We should remember to pray for the people of Santa Fe, like the people of Orange, and so many others around the country, that don't even get the little toleration that we do here.

And if ever the SSPX does have a good argument for "supplied jurisdiction," it would have to be in someplace like Santa Fe.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Notice it read "during" the Latin Mass.
I guess with a good canon lawyer(preferably Jewish), one could argue that it meant "no marriage contracted at the back of the Church, independent of the Mass which is being said at the Altar at the 'same time'". Right?
After O.J., anything's possible:
one COULD get around this.
Especially if one promised thereby to get a divorce and start "annulment" proceedings as soon after the wedding as possible, thereby keeping the bureaucracy firmly in place and suitably employed.
That could be a deciding footnote in the contract.

Dust I Am said...

We laugh at the silliness of the AB's claim that a wedding during the Latin Mass at St. Ignacio parish is not spiritual enough. But has anyone the boldness to confront this AB face-to-face? Choose a time when he is supposed to be with friends (e.g., post-Confirmation reception). Politely but firmly tell him that St. Ignacio's Latin Mass is a sacred place where the couple receive all the graces of a nuptial blessing in the Sacrament of Matrimony. In lieu of seeing AB Michael J. Sheehan in person, contact him through his representative--chancellor@archdiocesesantafe.org LET'S ALL BE ON THE OFFENSIVE!!!

Petrus said...

What really cracks me up about this notice is the "Latin Mass, ETC." part. Let's list other places, like the Latin Mass:

Church
Church
Church
A really beautiful old cathedral
Church
Church
Church

Yeah - that really takes out a lot of possibilities. I suggest people forget the whole wedding thing and just elope to Mexico or something. That would easier.