The rush to welcome disaffected Anglicans home...

I know it's stupid for me to say "I told you so" on such an obvious point (that is, my post of June 20, observing that the true Bishops will do nothing to bring the Anglican lost sheep, futher scattered by recent events, home to Holy Mother Church).

It's especially stupid because 90% of the people who look at my blog agreed with me to begin with (the others quit reading long ago, except for Todd).

But I don't care.

I'm saying it anyways.

I TOLD YOU SO.

On one hand, we have stories like this (one of dozens):

Episcopalians: Feud over gay bishops intensifies
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
NEW YORK A Pennsylvania diocese that is the epicenter of conservative Episcopal dissent over gay bishops rejected the authority of the incoming head of the denomination last week but stopped short of a full break with the Episcopal Church.

On the other hand we have this evidence of Catholic Bishops publicly reaching out to bring "traditional" Anglicans into communion with Rome:

• Kansas City Star Search: None.
• Yahoo News Search: None.
• Google Search: None.
• USCCB Website Search: None. But I did find a a blythe description of practices which violated the directives of His Holiness Pius XI in Mortalium Animos,
• Catholic News Agency Search: No articles. Even the one article that did address the breakup of the Anglican sects made no mention whatsoever of any Catholic reaction to the events within the sect.
• Catholic World News (cwnews.com) Search: No articles.

I would really have rather eaten crow here, and made a public apology to the few strong Bishops out there (Finn? Chaput? Bruskewitz? Doran? Finn? Yanta? Myers? Finn?) who made public invitations to disaffected Anglicans to return to the One True Church. I invite anyone who has evidence that I'm wrong--bold public actions that didn't make news, or even internet buzz--to comment or email me about this.

But unless someone (happily) corrects me, the answer is "no, to a man, they're leaving the lost sheep to drop off cliffs, or be taken by wolves, one by one."

Way to go, guys!...ahem, should I show more respect?...Way to go, Excellencies!

One other observation, while I'm at it: I notice that it seems (at least to some degree) that the "best" of the sects' dioceses are in the same locations as the worst dioceses of the true Church, and the worst of the sects' dioceses are in the same locations as the better dioceses of the true Church. For instance, the Episcopalian diocese of Springfield, Illinois is refusing to follow that chick who was just elected their primate; and the Catholic diocese of Springfield is a notorious den of iniquity. On the other hand, the Catholic diocese of Newark seems to be better than most--at least these days; while the Episcopalians there are loopier than most. The Pittsburg Catholic diocese is a mess (which, of course, didn't stop Wuerl from getting to go to cocktails regularly with the Kennedys and the Kerrys in D.C.), but the Pittsburg Episcopalians seem to have at least one heretical foot on the ground.

I don't know about other dioceses, but do please test my theory: the Fort Worth Episcopalians are pretty solid, even to the point of recognizing that a woman isn't valid matter for Holy Orders (wrongly presuming that they have valid orders to begin with, of course), and I think a former "bishop" of Ft. Worth actually became Catholic. The Catholic diocese of Dallas, next door, is a disaster. What do y'all know about Ft. Worth? Any other examples that support or run counter to my hypothesis?

One commandment at a time, please?

Sadly, something in the opening paragraph of this article apparently isn't newsworthy.

Priest May Have Misspent $1.4 Million
Friday July 28, 2006 11:31 PM, By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
Associated Press Writer

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - A priest who resigned from a church in an affluent Connecticut community misspent up to $1.4 million in parishioner donations to lead a life of luxury with another man, according to a church-directed investigation.

The whole article is HERE.

Nice response to the post on Blessed Sacrament in KCMO

I received a hit from the east coast, and a nice note from a lady who grew in Blessed Sacrament parish in Kansas City, Missouri. With her permission, I posted most of her note as a comment there (sadly, a few interesting original comments were lost when I switched comment services a few months ago).

Anyways, as I went back, I marvelled again at the beauty and vitality that church once enjoyed, and the disaster that befell it. If you haven't looked at that post, or haven't lately, I would encourage you do so by CLICKING HERE.

The Middle East

The Inquisitor has some good links to articles on the Zionist terrorism campaign.

Remember folks, that the rise of militant Islam has nothing to do with the United States' support, over the last 40 years, for the Zionist the occupation of Palestine and parts of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. Nothing. Nothing at all. It's a complete coincidence. The current state of affairs has nothing to do with the fact that America has armed the folks who deprived the the Palestinians of their ancestral homes. A complete coincidence.

Pro-Life Pharmacies

With other distractions last week, I didn't see this article about a decent supermarket owner in Olympia, Washington (of all places!) which decided it wasn't going to stock abortifacients.

It's not a story you see very often. And I'd like to think it's because a lot of pharmacy owners are quietly doing the right thing, and not because they ain't. At least I'd like to.

Which leads me to wonder, closer to home...are there any good pro-life pharmacists in the Kansas City area? I mean REALLY pro-life. No contraceptives, etc. If you know, please email me (curmudgeonkc@yahoo.com). I'd like to be doing business with them if they're out there.

More FSSP news

This morning I learned that the General Chapter of the Fraternity ended last week, with Fr. George Gabet reappointed as the North American District Superior, and Fr. Josef Bisig appointed as the Rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary.

Massachusetts, Missouri, whatever . . .

Well, Missouri's prohibition on "gay marriage" obviously isn't getting us very far. Jackson County Circuit Judge Sandra Midkiff is apparently doing her part to promote the homosexual agenda, and the lapdogs, Governor Matt Blunt and AG Jay Nixon, are rolling over and playing dead. According to Midkiff, sodomites in this state now have the right to corrupt other people's children with exposure to their "lifestyle" via the Missouri foster parent program.

Naturally, Satan's own lawyers at the ACLU are in on this, too:

Brett Shirk, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri, said he disagreed with the state asking prospective foster parents about their sexual orientation.

"If they’re going to comply with the measure, why do they need to know if people are gays or lesbians?” Shirk asked.

So, good Catholic parents, when the Missouri Social Services Goon Squad comes to take your kids away because they deem that you have too many, or they consider the lack of television in your household a form of neglect, the boys and girls may now have an opportunity to learn about sodomy while they're gone.

So, again, when does the shooting in the culture wars begin?

Update to St. Joseph / St. Benedict

New interior photos added from my visit to St. Joseph/St. Benedict in Kansas City, Kansas last month. Again, mediocre photography.

CLICK HERE.

Massachusetts Interdict

Wouldn't this be quite a news flash?

Pope Leo XIV has declared that, in response to events over the last decade within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States, and particularly in response to events in the last three months, the entire Commonwealth will be placed under prohibition, beginning on the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, July 31, 20xx. Beginning on that date, no sacraments of the Church may be celebrated in the Commonwealth, except for the benefit of those in danger of death.

The prohibition is not personal to most residents of Massachusetts, who will still be able to attend Mass and receive the sacraments at any place outside the state; however, officials and employees of the Commonwealth itself and any contractor who derives more than a de minimus amount of his or her personal income from goods or services provided to the Commonwealth are under a personal interdict as well, and are forbidden from receiving the sacraments during the period in
which they retain their positions, again with an exception for those in danger of death.

The bull, which was personally delivered on Saturday to Cardinal Charles Chaput by the Papal Nuncio and directed to be read in all churches of the Commonwealth this past Sunday, states that the prohibition and the interdicts shall continue until, in the determination of the Holy Father, who remains in consultation with his advisors in his matter, the civil government of the Commonwealth has corrected certain legislation which serves to undermine the family and the moral foundations on which society must be built, and certain more recent legislation which subjects the Church and its members to onerous restraints in the practice of their faith. Once the legislature has repealed the so-called Open Families Act and the so-called Welcoming Institutions Act, and the Church is again free to pursue its mission within the Commonwealth without interference or imposition from the civil government, the statewide prohibition shall be lifted; although certain of the personal interdicts may continue until the affected individuals have met with the Archbishop or his officials and manifested repentance.

The bull urges individual Catholics in Massachusetts to take whatever steps are necessary, short of physical violence or property damage, to bring about the needed reforms. These steps include the withholding of tax payments, the refusal to do business with the Commonwealth or its officials and employees, and similar forms of resistance. It also provides that those Catholics who for financial, health, or other serious reasons cannot travel outside Massachusetts for Mass are excused from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation during the continuance of the prohibition.

The bull further provides that any priest or deacon who celebrates the sacraments, except for the benefit of a person in danger of death, is thereby suspended latae sententiae and stripped of all offices and faculties he may have to preach, hear confessions, officiate at marriages, or perform other actions reserved to clerics with recourse reserved exclusively to the Holy See. Persistence by a cleric in refusing to abide by the prohibition or the interdicts beyond the feast of St. Lawrence, August 10, will result in the cleric's excommunication, latae sententiae, with recourse reserved to the Holy See.

Numerous Catholics, including Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, have expressed their outrage at the Pope and solidarity with Massachusetts Catholics. Although Senator Kennedy has been in a persistent vegitative state as the Beacon Hill Convalescent Center since the October before his last election, his aides have released a statement denouncing the interdict and stating that neither the Kennedy nor other citizens of Massachusetts "will let the Pope or Cardinal Chaput tell them how to be Catholic." The Episcopal bishop of Boston, Chip Charmboy, has invited Boston Catholics to Episcopalian churches, assuring them that there is plenty of room in the pews for them. Dozens of Catholic priests, including those at the Boston Paulist Center, have vowed to continue to celebrate Masses and other sacraments in defiance of the prohibitions and the interdicts. The board of governors at several Catholic institution, including Boston College, have convened emergency meetings. The president of Boston College stated that the college would likely end its affiliation with the Catholic Church in response to the Pope's actions.

However, there are some Massachusetts Catholics who approve of the move. "It's an inconvenience, but it's a small one, compared to the serious problems that exist in this state," said Joe Schmo, a parishioner at St. John Fisher in Boston. "The people who think they know better, and who pull the strings in this state, have made this Hell on earth. And they don't have Mass in Hell."

Rev. Clark Smith, pastor of St. Edmund Campion parish in Springfield, said, "Parishioners are, by and large, saddened by the prohibition, but understand it. They recognize that for too long, the so-called 'separation of church and state' idea has meant the subjugation of the church, and the glorification of the state. They think it's time we turn that around. Accommodation and cooperation have failed, and finally, we have a Pope who's standing firm, whatever the odds."

Rev. Paul Shepherd, SSPX, a pastor at Holy Trinity in Boston, the church which was reopened a few years ago by the recently regularized order of priests which says the Latin Mass, was happy about the unusual disciplinary moves. "We've made arrangements to accommodate our parishioners and other Catholics just across the state line in Rhode Island. All my parishioners are supportive of Pope Leo and, even though we don't answer directly to Archbishop Chaput, we're behind him, 100 percent. If the Holy Father is being this direct with the problems here, I can't wait to see what the he has in the works for Spain and France."

Cardinal Chaput has released a brief statement urging prayer for the conversion of the Commonwealth and obedience to the directives of the Holy Father. Requests for interviews have been denied by the Chancery office with the message that the bull of the Holy Father speaks for itself. Chancery officials have stated that, while the Blessed Sacrament will be removed from all tabernacles at the commencement of the prohibition (with reservation for emergencies in various private chapels) sermons will be preached and prayers held in each of the churches of the Archdiocese on Fridays and Saturdays during the continuance of the prohibition, but there will be no communion, confessions, baptisms or other sacraments for the time being. Watches and patrols are being organized among Catholic men to protect churches and other property during the prohibition.

In the old days, a prelate would put a region under prohibition, or whole groups of people under interdict when things got so out of hand he needed to get people's attention. It's long past time to do that in Massachusetts. Sure, it would be a hardship on the faithful Catholics in Massachusetts, but it isn't like they're in Texas. Everyone else can catch Mass just across the state line on the weekends, and that's . . . . what . . . . twenty minutes in any direction?

And sure, in a way, the pro-buggery crowd would love to see the Church out of business in Massachusetts, even temporarily. But I think decisive action would do more good than harm. It would be a wakeup call for faithful Catholics, and even some tepid Catholics, everywhere. And it would drive the scoundrels who are already in material heresy out of the Church once and for all.

Let's do it, your Holiness! And let's not wait for a mythical Leo XIV and a Cardinal Chaput to pull the trigger. Let's do it now!

(Thanks to one correspondent who inspired me to actually get out of my chair and pull out the 1983 JCL, reread Book VI, Title IV, and get my terminology right).

A new webring . . . or not.

I was going to join a new webring (a cluster of blogs, like the Evil Traditionalists), but I was disappointed. When I clicked over to the following webring:

The Alliance for Moderate, Liberal and Progressive Blogs

Join List Previous Next

I discovered there were 0 active members, and 0 pending applications for membership. Now our little webring isn't big. Only a dozen members (mostly due to our lack of attention, and our inability to agree on anything), but gee, we've got the dissenters beat, don't we?

Marcus Scotus strikes again

Do click over to Rome of the West for pictures by Marcus Scotus from the weekend's Latin Liturgy Association church tour, which includes a photos and commentary on Holy Family church, built in 1799 in Cahokia, Illinois.

Update to Guardian Angels and Good Counsel

A quick jaunt back across the line to Kansas City, Missouri: I had a chance to take some photos of Guardian Angels' interior (and I've had facade shots of both churches I've been meaning to post for some time). I've updated my December 10, 2005 post with those photos.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE UPDATED POST

Again I must apologize for the quality of the interior photos. The sanctuary lights were off, and I didn't feel it prudent to walk up and say "Hi, I'm a crank traditionalist blogger, and I want to show the world just how badly you've messed up your church! Would you mind turning the sanctuary lights on so my photos of your ugly, defaced sanctuary look better on the internet?" I just took my photographs, reverenced the Blessed Sacrament, and got myself out of there.
Anyways, if you've got better quality pictures of Guardian Angels, please forward them to me and I'll switch them out.

Empty Churches

Everybody loves Abp. Ranjinth, but this line in a recent CWNews article discloses the modernist line of thinking which has been repeated on EWTN and elsewhere by his boss Cardinal Arinze...

Every day, the archbishop disclosed, the Congregation for Divine Worship receives new complaints about serious liturgical abuses, and complaints that local bishops have failed to correct them. If the Church fails to curb these abuses, he said, "people will attend the Tridentine Mass, and our churches will be empty." Liturgical guidelines are set forth clearly, he observed, in the Roman Missal and in Church documents. Now "some discipline is necessary regarding what we do at the altar."

The "ours" language (the the "theirs" implication) is revealing.

Um, they aren't celebrating the Tridentine Mass in fields, folks! This isn't suffering Ireland.

ow, if people will attend the Trindentine Mass, and if a bishop provides for it in many of the churches of his diocese, "our churches" won't be empty. If people will attend the Trindentine Mass, and if a bishop forbids it in any of the churches of his diocese, "our churches" will be empty.

Hmm. Seems like we ought to........naw!

Hat tip to Athanasius, without whom I wouldn't have bothered to read this article, having grown weary of hearing the promise of a reform of the reform time and again.

Holy Family Slovenian Parish -- Update

As I'm figuring out remote photo hosting, I'm gradually updating a few of my Kansas side church tour posts with interior shots I've taken. Now it's time for Holy Family, the beautiful little Slovenian parish church in Kansas City, Kansas

(CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE UPDATED POST)

Like all the eastern Wyandotte County churches the parishioners are living under a dark cloud right now, fearing that Meitler Consultants and the chancery folks will convince the Archbishop to wipe them out. If you haven't visited Holy Family, you should do so in 2006, because there's no promise the parish will be there in 2007

And it would be a shame. It has a fascinating history, some of which is presented by Jovan in the comments to that post. If you've got more history that might be generally interesting, do please add it!

Things I DON'T see at the altar....

Hey, does anyone know if a guy can still buy a copy of the St. Joseph's First Communion Baltimore Catechism that has not been defaced? If so, where?



I've been meaning to ask for a while, and now that I've figured out a work-around for my photos....

Womynpriests?

It just occurred to me that perhaps we shouldn't be so upset about dissenters going around pretending to ordain womynpriests. We should actually encourage it.

After all, we don't want a bunch of schismatics and heretics running about with valid Holy Orders, do we?

It just might be that the best way to make that problem go away, and to avoid confusion to uncatechized Catholics and repeated sacrilege with the Body and Blood of our Lord, and to assure the goofballs quickly assume their place as another irrelevant protestant sect, is for them to "ordain" as many chicks as they can, and to "consecrate" them as bishops.

If they spend all their energy floating with the current and performing such rites on invalid matter, instead of on men, the problem of having true priests among the heretics and schismatics will be gone in a generation.

The Curt Jester. . .

...has another good one. It's been a while since I've checked his blog (I'm not sure why). Anyways, he's rolled out a new game--most amusing--or would be if it weren't potentially another "progressive" Thuc in the making.

The latest rumor . . .

Here's the latest SSPX rumor, picked up on Rorate Caeli and quickly translated, just two days after Bp. Fellay's election. Frankly, I don't believe it, but here it is all the same:

"Lefebvrists: the agreement is closer - The pact is ready, but Fellay has not yet decided" from Rome

[Il Giornale - report by Andrea Tornielli]

All is ready for the agreement between the Holy See and the Fraternity Saint Pius X, founded by the "rebel" Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The Vatican forwarded several weeks ago precise propositions to reach peace [a peaceful solution] and the reentrance of the Lefbvrists into full communion with Rome.

The wind has shifted on the Texas High Plains.

I've got a soft spot in my heart for the Diocese of Amarillo. Just a few Catholics, mostly poor Mexican immigrants, live in the Texas Panhandle, which (except for the Mexicans, a few German settlement downs like Nazareth and Umbarger and Panhandle, and a scattered community in the City of Amarillo) is overrun with evangelical protestant sects, like you wouldn't believe.

From what I'm told, the Catholic kids in Amarillo mostly hung out with the Methodist kids, because they were the only ones you could dance and drink with. The evengelicals ran the city and set the tone of society (not that one couldn't occasionally see an evangelical preacher's daughter absolutely smashed at a Methodist kid's party once in a while).

And it isn't enough that the Amarillo Catholics are a tiny minority, with only 35 parishes and (at most) a couple dozen priests across 26,000 square miles in their dry, flat part of the world. They've had their internal challenges as well. There's no Traditional Mass for many hours in any direction (probably the closest is in Albuquerque, 250 miles west). I've heard tell that there are school kids from the 1970s and 1980s who, after 12 years of Catholic elementary school, confirmation, CCD, etc., didn't even know that Mass was ever different than the gym-and-guitar variety which was the norm there. No sense of history to be found. Nearly every church in the city of Amarillo, including the horrible St. Laurence Cathedral, was built in the 1970s (ugh).

Amarillo's former Bishop, Leroy T. Mattheissen, seemed to care about only one thing--protesting the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly facility which lay northeast of town. While Catholic families floundered through the 1970s and 1980s with little authentic catechesis, wierdness at Mass, vanishing nuns, and a collapsing parochial school system, Bp. Mattheissen was caught up in making the diocese a haven for Catholic peace-nik hippies and what-not (not that I'm in favor of total war, mind you, but let's mind our own store first, shall we . . .?).

Well, Mattheisen didn' just make Amarillo a haven for Catholic peace-nik hippies. It also became a haven for "problem" priests. Unable to recruit sufficient numbers of priests from within the diocese (gee, I wonder why, given the times and his focus?), he imported most of them to replace the old timers that died off or retired.

Guess where the major source of priests was for Mattheisen? Priests released from the Paraclete Center for Clergy Sexual Disorders in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. That's right, Matthiesen didn't just overlook pederasts in his own clergy; he went out and actively recruited them.

Anyways, in 1997, Mattheisen retired, and went off (surprisingly?) to celebrate rainbow Masses that even the Vatican couldn't ignore. Meanwhile, Bp. John Yanta was consecrated and shipped in from San Antonio for housecleaning, which didn't go quickly enough, of course.

In 2002, with the new norms, the diocese had to put 25% of its presbyteriate, 8 of its 32 active priests (the ranks of which had already been thinned by resignations of disheartened liberals, previous scandals, and some unfortunate political shenanigans) out to pasture, which makes Amarillo, per capital, the worst-hit diocese in the abuse scandal.

Well, Bishop Yanta, with the Mattheisen-era source of priests shut off, has finally started to take another tack. He backed out of a proposed "ecumenical" High School and has attempted to reestablish an authentically Catholic high school in the diocese, and he invited pro-life crusader Fr. Frank Pavone to set up his Priests for Life organization in the diocese .

And most recently, as you may have seen on CWNews or Seattle Catholic, Bishop Yanta has spoken up on modesty. Yes, modesty. Has anyone heard a Bishop (since Fulton Sheen) talk about modesty? Here's the text of his letter and observations he quotes, which include a reference to an FSSP priest many of us have heard, Fr. Chris Hathaway.

Now, the Evil Trads and their friends will all jump on this article and the observations and say it's inadequate; it's incomplete, and it's therefore bad. It's true, it doesn't quote the objective standards laid down by the Church, and seems to make ambiguous allowances for swimming pools and lakes. He doesn't condemn pants on women, nor shorts and T-shirts on men.

But the Evil Trads don't know the history of Amarillo. And therefore, they don't know what a huge improvement it is to see something--anything--remotely traditional coming out of that Chancery office. C'mon....that a Bishop of Amarillo would be quoting an FSSP priest, Fr. John Hardon, and preconciliar popes (or even quoting someone who's quoting them, instead of quoting Fr. Richard McBrien and Bp. Tom Gumbleton and Alfred Kinsey) is really something.

REALLY something. Everyone should pray that God's blessings fall upon the Catholics of Amarillo. After so long in the wilderness, they're certainly due.

From the FSSP General Chapter

With the understandable, hopeful focus on Econe and the reelection of Bp. Fellay as SSPX superior, many may have missed a less exciting, but nevertheless newsworthy announcement from on the FSSP general chapter webpage:

On Tuesday 11 July 2006,
the General Chapter of the FSSP,
has elected the General Council
including the following members,
the Reverend Fathers:

1. Patrick du Faÿ de Choisinet, Assistant,
2. Almir De Andrade, Assistant,
3. Charles Van Vliet, Assistant,
4. Josef Bisig, Councilor,
5. Alban Cras, Councilor.

My kinda guys....

The Washington Post crowd is all lathered up about our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund:

"They're not for some form of generic religious freedom. They're for Christian superiority, that Christians take over the courts," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. "They are living in this fantasy world where the majority religion, Christianity, is claimed to be literally under attack."

Three webpages of screed against them from the "nation's newpaper of record [heave, wretch]." Many of the people who read this blog know at least one ADF lawyer--although you wouldn't expect a traditional Catholic working among the Post's list of "Who's Who" of evangelicals, there is at least one. Bully for him, bully for them.

Another great tour...

Another great tour of a St. Louis area Catholic property--the LaDue Carmelite Monastery--by Mark at Rome of the West.

No kidding!

Quoth the Times on the approval of women "bishops" in the Church of England:

Supporters of the move argue it is illogical that women can become Church of England priests but not bishops.

Of course it's illogical. Likewise, the Times paraphrased the fellow who styles himself the Archbishop of York, who got it right about the consistency of women "bishops" with the faith of their "church":

Dr Sentamu called for the Synod to "welcome and affirm" the view of the majority of the House of Bishops that admitting women to the episcopate was consistent with the faith of the church

When one's faith was founded upon political expediency, it's totally consistent.

I've always stood prepared to say, to those close to me who are members of the Episcopalian sect, that I believe every woman ordained a priest or bishop is just as much a priest or bishop as they would be if they were men. Which is true (as I think I've said before), neither are so in any way.

What remains to be seen (again, as I said just a couple of weeks ago) is what the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales will do in response to this synod; i.e., will they send their carefully-worded congratulations, via the farcical ARCIC to Rowan Williams on his communion's latest small step towards apostacy, or will they sieze the opportunity to invite the few traditional Christians among the Anglican sect back into Holy Mother Church?

--Curmudgeon

BTW, A friend pointed me to my fellow Evil Trad, Athanasius, who has the latest scuttlebutt that he's picked up about new FSSP Superior, Rev. John Berg. Athanasius, I apologize for having not picked you up on my blogroll sooner.

Bishop Finn on the Radio

This just in from my friend Orville Dishwater:

His Excellency Robert W. Finn will be on KMBZ 980-AM on Sunday morning at 10:05 a.m. (7/09/06). Host Mike Shanin will interview the bishop and take calls from listeners.

Note this is the commercial news/talk station KMBZ 980, not the usual place, KEXS 1090.

New KC Catholic Blogs

There's a new blog by a nice Catholic lady from our part of the world, which I've been following for the last few weeks, Dust of the Time. Interesting reminiscences and such that are a pleasure to read, and without all the typos and dispepsia of blogs like my own. I'm on her blogroll; she's going on mine.

The other one went onto my blogroll with little fanfare a couple of weeks ago, although I understand why I may not be on his. This one is by an anonymous priest of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, KC Priest. He posts somewhat irregularly (what are the man's priorities?), but it's good to have him around.

--Curmudgeon

PS. At least they appear to be written by a nice Catholic lady and a priest. They could, perhaps, be from other bitter young working fathers and frustrated crusaders who are pretending to be a nice Catholic lady and a priest as a form of performance art or something. Then again, this blog could actually be written by a nice Catholic lady or a priest pretending to be a bitter young working father and frustrated crusader, now couldn't it?

Goofball Benedictines Get Honest: They're Prots

This story of the abandonment of the faith appeared on the USCCB's Catholic News Agency wire this week. I'm sure most of my readers have seen it by now, so I won't quote significant excerpts:

Benedictine center abandons Catholic identity

Madison, WI, Jul. 04, 2006 (CNA) - The St. Benedict Center, a Benedictine ecumenical community in Madison for the past 40 years, has chosen to end its ties to the Roman Catholic Church in order to live out more comfortably its ecumenical character….

….Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison wished the women well, but is cautious about the future of the monastery. "Such experimental endeavors can bear great fruit for the Church, such as the monastery at Taizé (France)," he wrote in a June 26 letter to his priests. "But there are very few other success stories worldwide, and thus our prayers and good wishes are all the more important."

The bishop approved the changes, but he requested that the monastery no longer have Catholic Mass celebrated at the center and that the Eucharist no longer be reserved in the chapel…..

Naturally, the Bishop "wished the women well" in their desertion of Holy Mother Church. No effort to recover their property as ecclesiastical goods (contra what might have happened at EWTN and what we see the more heretical set of Episcopalians doing to the slightly-less heretical Episcopalians in this country) was reported. No concern that in taking their monestary outside the church they were contravening the wishes of their founders and putting their property to a use their now-dead benefactors would have been appalled at. As I've done before, I'm going to rewrite this story. Does it sound very unlike what happened in dozens of places around the country over the last few decades?

Parish abandons affiliation with Catholic Diocese
Madison, WI, Jul. 04, 1996 (CC) - St. Pius V Catholic Church, a parish in Madison for the past 40 years, has chosen to end its affiliation with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison in order to live out more fully the spiritual life of the Catholic Church as it existed prior to the Second Vatican Council.

The pastor, Fr. David Brimstone, told the Wisconsin State Journal that there are several reasons for the change, one of which is that the parishioners, nearly all of whom prefer to participate in the Mass and the other sacraments according to the practices prior to Vatican II, were uncomfortable supporting diocesan programs and with implementing new practices such as laypersons distributing communion, communion in the hand, female altar servers, simplified Masses in English, and lay-run RCIA programs.

The pastor said the parish petitioned the Vatican for separation from the diocese and retention of parish assets, and that the request was granted. The parish will now be officially known as simply St. Pius V Church.

"We felt like we had second-class status in the diocese, and we objected to being associated with the modern way of 'being Church' and to paying diocesan assessments for educational facilities and programs our people will never use," parish finance council member Lynn Smith told the newspaper. He joined the St. Pius in 1971, a year after his old parish adopted the new rite of Mass in English that had been promulgated by Pope Paul VI.

The pastor said the parish, with members who drive as much as 70 miles to get to Mass, will now function as an independent church, Catholic in principal and spirit, similar to those run by the canonically irregular traditionalist societies throughout the world, under its new name.

All members will still be individually considered Roman Catholics in good standing.

Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison wished the parish well, but is cautious about its future. "Such experimental endeavors can bear great fruit for the Church," he wrote in a June 26 letter to his priests. "But there are other unsuccessful attempts at this worldwide, and thus our prayers and good wishes are all the more important." The bishop approved the changes, but he requested that the parish no longer have the new Mass of Paul VI celebrated at the center, and that his portriat and the official diocesan felt banners would no longer be displayed in the chapel. Fr. Brimstone assured the bishop that neither condition would be a problem.

The bishop said Catholic adults are free to go to the parish, but added that it may not be suitable for young people or catechumens. Young people, he said, need to be well grounded in the spirit of Vatican II in order to have a foundation from which they can participate in traditional liturgies.

Such a scenario is just preposterous isn't it? (and it should be so). Then why isn't the scenario actually played out in Madison preposterous? (ignoring technicalities of civil law ownership, and focusing on Catholic principles, of course).

Now, I'm not inviting any comments about traditional/newfangled parish life or any discussions about the the extremes of traditionalism or the caution warranted with regard to independent chapels. I'm focused on these goofball Benedictines.

I'm just pointing out (for the billionth time) the horrible double standard. A Bishop has a duty to be vigilant about the souls in his charge and keep control of ecclesiastical property in any situation, whether the claimant is from the right or the left (or represents someone who claims to have been buggered by one of his priests), but obviously, there's less vigilance and less control when the claimant is a progressive or a member of the plaintiff's bar than there is a group of traditional folk who, in good faith, are trying to hold fast or revert to the old faith (which is not to suggest that my little rewrite is a prudent move for any parish--except maybe one in the Diocese of Orange).

People of Madison, grandchildren of those who gave to the Benedictines so they could build their monestary, it's time to throw a fit!

Fr. John Berg elected leader of the FSSP

This just in, via the good folks at Rorate-Caeli:

Official Communiqué

On Friday 7 July 2006, on the feast of the saints Cyril and Method, the General Chapter of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (a clerical society of apostolic life of pontifical right), gathered in its mother house in Wigratzbad (Germany), has elected today Fr. John Berg as Superior General for a six-year term according to law. An American citizen, Fr. Berg has studied philosophy in the USA and theology in Germany (Wigratzbad) and in Rome. He has worked in pastoral ministry and as a seminary professor. Very Rev. Fr. Berg is the third Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter.

Rev. Fr. A. de Malleray, FSSP
Chapter Moderator

Rev. Fr. Franz Karl Banauch, FSSP
Chapter Secretary

I don't know Fr. Berg, and it doesn't sound like I will. But it's shocking that they've elected an American and a priest of less than 10 years' experience. He must be impressive (but then, nearly every FSSP priest I've met is impressive. How does one stand out in such a crowd?)

However, my personal prayers were answered in that (a) they didn't elect one of those naughty Frenchmen who brought about--or were complicit in--the intervention in the last General Chapter and the issuance of Protocol 1411, and (b) they didn't elect MY chaplain. I continue to pray that my chaplain comes home from the General Chapter as a mere chaplain, untouched by ecclesiastical politics, and resumes his humble life as a backwater priest.

Anyways, I would recommend that folks click over to Rorate-Caeli and follow the story there. They're not just a bunch of cranks like me--they really are on top of things.

Jeff at Hallowed Ground, one of Fr. Berg's former parishioners, has a shot of the the new FSSP Superior General getting ready to bean some unseen soul at dodgeball. Gotta like that. Does anyone have a picture of Msgr. Gilles Wach throwing a big, red ball at someone?

St. Rose Philippine Duschene Community Update

Over at Kansas Church Closings, I posted the written submission of the St. Rose Philippine Duschene Community to the Archbishop and the task force. At this point, it's so widely circulated around town that I might as well publish it over there.

Now, dear readers, before you waste your time commenting that (a) the exercise was a waste of time because the Archbishop has probably already made up his mind, and/or (b) it's a silly exercise that we wouldn't have to go through if we weren't compromising indulters, but instead went over to the SSPX chapel where we could have our old Mass, by right, without any strings attached, do PLEASE stop and read carefully: I know that. I know (a) is a possibility--actually, a probability. I know (b) is an option many have chosen in good faith. I have a feeling that the SRPD people who pulled this together from their data and their "listening session" notes have considered both points.

The battle for the Church is being fought on many fronts, and this just happens to be the front my that community is fighting on. Did the Resistance escape to England when the Germans overran France, or did they carry on from within, to the great benefit of those who did cross the Channel to regroup?

Those who've read my blog for a while know that I've never been one to condemn, outright, the SSPX or the laymen who have affiliated themselves with the SSPX (which isn't to say I haven't second-guessed certain members' prudence at times), and I have little patience either for those who pound on the SSPX as hellbound schismatics, on one hand, or those who insist that indulters are "of the devil," to quote one of my fellow Evil Trads, or that the SSPX/independent front are the only fronts worth fighting on.

I will continue to arbitrarily and capriciously exercise my comment deleting powers if comments get out of hand here or over at Kansas Church Closings.

St. John the Baptist, KCKS

NOTE: This post was originally made many weeks ago, and was a big hit with the Croatian web newsgroups. I had a chance to go back and take a number of new photographs a couple of weekends ago, so I figure I'll move it up to the front of the cue. Scr0ll down to see the new pictures.

BTW, I had a nice writeup of the pictures, taken from a flyer in the north transcept, but must have misfiled it somewhere on my system. For now, though, I'm just so excited about having pictures up at all that I'll post them without comment for the time being--after all, we want people to see the beauty of this little church before the Archbishop closes it down, don't we? And yes, I know the aspect ratio is screwed up on the new pictures. I'll fix that at some point as I get more comfortable with HTML and off-blogger photo hosting.

Original Post: March 25: Here are some pictures of St. John the Baptist, the Croatian church standing at the top of Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kansas. This is the church that you can't miss when you come west over the West Bottoms via the Lewis & Clark Viaduct (I-70). It's one of the few old ethnic churches that hasn't lost its ethnic flavor. A few years ago when I first peeked inside, I walked up the steps behind several old men speaking in what sounded like Croatian.

For some time, I've postponed this post, primarily because I've wanted to include interior pictures. My friend, Orville Dishwater, took some photographs with his 35mm years ago on a tour. However (judging from the proof sheet in the package he gave me), he took some of the very best photographs out of the set, perhaps to share with someone else, and so the interior shots I have are (although good) incomplete in this case--they don't include a shot of the High Altar (which judging from the 1cm x 1.5cm image on the proof sheet, was a very nice picture). These interior pictures are just a tease.

So, anyways, it's been a few months since I resolved to get over there again and take interior pictures, and I've still failed to make it at a time when the church was open but Mass or other functions weren't happening. I'm going to try again, and when I finally succeed (if I succeed before the Archbishop closes the church and sells it off to someone to convert into lofts or a bed and breakfast or a heretical meeting house or a gay bar), I'll fill in this post with more interior pictures and some history (beyond the short blurb I've pasted in below).

The church grounds include a former orphanage and and school (not the Strawberry Hill Museum) which is connected to the church by a pedestrian drawbridge over an alley. I've been told that there is a bowling alley and a bar in the basement of this church; however, I have not confirmed this.

The interior is very pretty, as I recall, with a Central-European Roccoco thing going on (a pastel pallate, if I remember correctly, but not kitschy). I will get more pictures at some point, I promise.

Transcribed from History of Wyandotte County Kansas and its people ed. and comp. by Perl W. Morgan. Chicago, The Lewis publishing company, 1911. 2 v. front., illus., plates, ports., fold. map. 28 cm. [Vol. 2 contains biographical data. Paged continuously.]

ST. JOHN'S CROATIAN CHURCH.
A handsome church used by the Croatian nationality stands at Fourth street and Barnett avenue. It is called the church of St. John the Baptist and is presided over by Father M. D. Krmpotic. The church was built by this clergyman at a cost of $25,000. The architecture is of pure Gothic type, and its interior furnishings are of the finest material. The walls are decorated with paintings of Biblical scenes and characters by artists who came from Croatia for that purpose, The parish also has a $3,000 residence and maintains a school where more than one hundred Croatian children attend and receive instruction in the common branches and good citizenship. There are almost two hundred families in the parish besides about three hundred single men who are members of the congregation.

Updated with photos taken June 20, 2006

English Catholicism: What can we do to save it?

There was a report on the collapse of English Catholicism recently released, which was aptly covered by our dear friend Hilary on Lifesite.net, and less aptly covered in the Times of London, that apex of the mainstream press.

Do contrast Hilary's story with that of the Times. The Times has this laughable quote from Tom Horwood, author of The Future of the Catholic Church in Britain:

It is clear that if the Catholic Church in Britain is to successfully communicate its messages and persuade an increasingly secular and cynical audience it must change its approach. Reactionary, defensive tactics have failed.

The Times of course touches on the clergy abuse scandal, but dare not explore the collapse of the Church there in any depth, lest they discover the "reactionary" tactics are exactly what will save the church. But Hilary fears not, pointing out:

The collapse of the Catholic Church around the world coincides precisely with the period following Vatican II when bishops, clergy and religious decided to re-orient the Church to conform to secular values. Declining Catholic numbers can be correlated closely to decline in orthodox practice and preaching. The grim national statistics are often reversed in those areas and communities where traditional moral teaching, styles of worship and adherence to otherworldly
values are prominent.

We can count on the Times, and on the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, not to consider the difference in the Church that brought their nation the great converts of the 20th Century, including Chesterton, or the great converts of the 19th, including Newman, and the 21st century Church that features such laughable examples of lived faith as Cherie Blair.



No, a reactionary Catholicism can't save the faith in England, the only hope lies in even more of the progressive Churchmanship that we've seen in the last 40 years! If it says so in the Times, it must be so, indeed.

T-Shirt dispute

My fellow Evil Traditionalists are disputing modesty, once again, on their blogs and in our elite, super-secret email list. Yawn. This time, the subject is T-shirts. Should a respectable Catholic man ever be seen in just a T-shirt? If so, in what circumstances? Yawn. In the locker room? In a campground? At home? At Mass? At Prom? Yawn.

Personally, I'm not much for T-shirts. I wear them every day, of course, but always underneath something else. Around the house I might wear my Free State Brewery T-Shirt (the one from the Lawrence, Kansas restaurant that seems to be coast to coast, with the statement from the Capuchin friar, Brother Epp who suffered through prohibition: "Without beer, things do not seem to go as well"). But I never, or almost never, go out in public in a T-shirt (except on the mad dashes to the hardware store as I'm doing my Saturday chores). I agree with my fellow Evil Trads that T-shirts should not be worn about in public (but more because it's sloppy and low-class than because it's immodest). I'll also add that I really dislike T-shirts with images of our Lord or the Blessed Mother on them--they really shouldn't go on something so banal.

However, I respect others' opinions on the matter (so long as I don't have to sit behind them in their T-shirts at Mass). If you're one of those others, and you really want a T-shirt, you should check out this guy, who sells "traditional" T-shirts, at least insofar as any T-shirt can be traditional. If I were a T-shirt guy, I'd order one each of the last two ("When does the next crusade begin?" and "Ecclesia Militans"), and I've already sent him and idea for another.

On loyalty to one's parish

As I logged on, after I checked my email and the queue of comments, and as I was thinking about what on earth I should do with them (they range from "you traddies suck!" to complaints about the chancery zeitgeist--can I use the word "zeitgiest" more than once a week without sounding pompous?--to perhaps the most profound comment: "Please use larger type")......as I was thinking, I checked through the blogs I normally read.

And I came across one post from a great guy in Northern California, Jeff of Hallowed Ground, on loyalty to one's parish. Jeff hit home, for me, anyways, in using the Kirk family as his exemplar. I love Russell Kirk's work, requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.

Leaving aside the controversy I've brought to light on the treatment of the traditional Latin Mass community, and thinking about the situation for the territorial parishioners in Wyandotte county (as well as some of the territorial parishioners I know in Franklin, Anderson and Coffey counties, who are fearing closure), my heart breaks for them. For years, they've done without so much one expects from one's parish, out of loyalty and love for their neighbors and their buildings. With an exception or two, lifetime pastorates are verboten; priests have come and gone as part of the rotation whereby the Archdiocese assures that the bonds of pastoral authority and pastoral responsibility aren't too strong, and the notion of spiritual fatherhood has been destroyed, and the quality of priests is ... shall we say ... not consistent. But these people have stayed with their neighbors and their buildings, which are the constant material reminders of their faith -- their sacramentals -- through it all. I haven't been to many Wyandotte novus ordo churches, but I've been to a lot of rural ones, and I have well-observed the Kirkian feeling that Jeff aludes to. Pray for them.