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| Duncan Garner asks Big Red Sister why she didn't cancel Big Gay Out |
Ash Wednesday in New Zealand, thanks to Big Red Sister Ardern and our collaborator bishops, was a travesty. For the first time in our lives we began the penitential season of Lent without bearing on our foreheads the mark of Christ.
Many Catholics traditionally were glad of the chance to explain, to people who tactfully pointed out they had dirt on their face, just what that sign meant.
- That it signifies the Cross of Christ who died for them on Calvary.
- That it's a sacramental, and as such blesses its wearer.
- That the ashes are made from the palms blessed on the previous Palm Sunday.
- That they symbolise the dust from which the first man, Adam, was made and to which every man will return eventually, in our coffins: "Remember man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return". The Church of Nice Vat 2 version is "Repent and believe in the Gospel": to which the response could well be, "Well of course I believe in the Gospel, I'm here aren't I, and what do you mean, repent?"
Anyway, a blog reader in rural Waikato is incensed. Not because he wasn't incensed literally - he wouldn't have expected thurifer and thurible on Ash Wednesday, but he was already fulminating about the celebrant priest whom, he said, he "had to" call out a couple of Sundays ago, during his sermon/homily (always so weak) when he praised St Jacinda for saving us all from the deadly virus.
"So, this evening, we had an extraordinarily childish farce of distributing the ashes. The ashes were rendered into a texture that could be “sprayed”. As congregants approached the sanctuary, this priest sort of threw ashes at the back of their extended hands so that they could then wipe the ashes across their foreheads ! It would be hard to make this up.
"And, of course, there was no incantation: Remember that thou once wast dust, and unto dust thou shalt return. Perhaps that’s been discarded along with the Baptismal rejection of the Devil."
From Palmerston North:
"Went to the Ash Wed Mass at the Cathedral, Mass was nice but no ashes this year. The palms were burned but the ashes not distributed. "Something, something, COVID..., something, something." "
"The only reason for a Covid sermon is because Covid has become the new god. Bring back Greta and climate change for a bit."
"I was there at the Cathedral also. Despite being told in writing that the ashes would be distributed in the hand, the rules suddenly changed when the Mass started and no ashes were distributed. HOWEVER, if you came late and went to the kitchen dining area Father N. was taking the overflow (once 100 in the Cathedral was reached) and he was distributing the ashes, so I got some. It's a continuously moving target.
"I can imagine the political battles behind the scenes between all the parish little Jacindas."
Here in Holy Trinity Central Hawke's Bay we had no ashes and no sermon (better no sermon than a COVID sermon). The attendance was pitiful.
But we had Mass. It seems Palmerston North was the only diocese in the country which began Lent with Holy Mass and ashes. And why was that, do you think?
Because we haven't got a bishop, perhaps? Or rather, we haven't got a bishop like all the other dioceses': collaborator bishops who kowtow to a neo-Marxist government. Bishops who seem to believe you can eliminate a virus. Bishops who illicitly deny their flocks the Bread of Life and the sacraments - and even sacramentals; who believe sanitiser works better than holy water.
Last Sunday Jacinda Ardern celebrated the 'Big Gay Out' with thousands and thousands of the LGBTQ+ community - while there was COVID-19 - a new strain, gasp, shock, horror! lurking in the wider community and for all she knew, at the Big Gay Out.
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| Stalinda with thousands of LGBTQ+ revellers. She knew COVID-19 was lurking |
At 1:40pm, they were told by officials to carry on - "it's safe for your mass gathering". Safe for your mass gathering with a small 'm' that is. By 11.59 pm gatherings for Mass were verboten. Jarwohl, mein Führer.
So all the country's Catholic bishops had a conference the next morning and decided that as a Conference it was best not to decide. The bishops could decide. And they decided, one and all, to do not what the magisterium of the Church commands, in Canon 455, but to do what der Führer commanded.
Bishops' Conferences have "absolutely no authority" to make decrees canceling all public Masses. canon lawyer Dr. Catherine Caridi states. "The law is clear ... according to canon 455 it [such a decree] is invalid.
"If priests are being told in your country that 'all public Masses must be canceled, by order of the bishops' conference,' this directive has no legal weight and should be disregarded."
Auckland Diocese: all weekday and Ash Wednesday Masses were cancelled until at least today.
Hamilton Diocese: "As the Church, which is the Body of Christ, we wish to stand together to fight this pandemic and preserve lives."
Only there's no pandemic and the lives of souls will be endangered.
Priests ... will make the decision on what your parish can offer on Ash Wednesday."
More buck-passing. We can only hope those priests and all priests are aware of Canon 455.
"The ashes will be sprinkled over our heads."
It would seem that in a certain quarter of the Waikato the priest was even more innovative than that.
Wellington Archdiocese: There are to be no Masses or other liturgical events or parish gatherings in the Archdiocese. This includes weekday Masses. No Ash Wednesday Masses or liturgies in our churches.
Christchurch Diocese: We are not able to celebrate Mass on Ash Wednesday.
Dunedin Diocese: Public gatherings limited to 100; Communion under one kind; Social distancing (1m) and good hygiene; Contact tracing. On Ash Wednesday the ashes will be sprinkled. No physical contact.
So much for der Führer' s plea for her "team of 5 million" (hah! count me out) to be not only "kind" but "strong". Our bishops are cruel and in the face of this totalitarian Government's demands, weak as a litter of kittens.
Looks like Palmerston North should count our blessings. Radical traditionalist Catholics - whose prayer may have preserved our Ash Wednesday, and the diocese (so far) from a wolf in shepherd's clothing - pray even harder for a bishop that will break the NZ Church of Nice mould.
To encourage you, and all faithful Catholics throughout this Lent which is bound to be like no other, some words from Saint Bernard about devotion to Our Lady. His advice is as follows:
“Oh, whosoever thou art that perceiveth thyself during this mortal existence to be rather drifting in treacherous waters, at the mercy of the winds and the waves, than walking on firm ground, turn not away thine eyes from the splendor of this guiding star, unless thou wish to be submerged by the storm!”
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Daniel Tither says:
ReplyDeleteThe Big Gay Out has been held on the 14th of February — Saint Valentine's Day — for two years running now.
Because just as the case was in 2013 for marriage, the state of gay relationships and marriages seem to be considered more important than heterosexual ones.
Stella McLeod says:
We had Masses on Ash Wednesday in Rotorua, limited to 100 per Mass. Ashes were sprinkled on our heads. Those who missed out on getting in(because of the 100 limit) received ashes in the car park. I think there were two evening Masses (after the 4.30pm announcement) because the first Mass at 5.30pm had been booked out. We went earlier in the day.
This is why I am particularly annoyed that the shift to Level 1 was delayed until midnight. If it had been effective immediately then Masses of more than 100 could have been held; those in the Auckland region could have had Masses with the 100 limit. Although really, outside of the October census who normally counts how many are at Mass? These limits regardless of the size of the church building are ridiculous.
Justine Vollert says:
Stella if you read the bible and the priest read the bible he would know that mass gatherings don't breed disease. Isolate the sick and tneir immediate contacts and let the rest live their lives. That is what the word of God says.
Teresa Coles says:
Same in Taupo..2 Masses and 1 in Turangi ... Apparently Ashes sprinkled on heads is how they used to have it, but I missed having the cross on forehead.
I say:
Yes. Ashes sprinkled on the head won't be noticed. The cross on the forehead is such a visible witness to the Cross of Christ.
Janet Curran says:
ReplyDeleteWe had ashes sprinkled on our heads at the Latin Mass but communion wasn't distributed due to the bishop forbidding it.
Janet Curran adds:
DeleteTo make matters worse I believe that the priest was told to give Communion in the hand which isn't allowed under the rubrics of the Latin Mass. Priests are in a difficult position because they can be suspended from the diocese.
I say:
That's appalling. I think I know your diocese, and I wonder whether the bishop would actually suspend a priest? For one thing, it would require some gumption. For another, priests are in such short supply, how would the bishop find a replacement? And for another, for the same reason might such a priest not be welcomed with open arms by some other bishop? Or would all the bishops 'gang up' on such a priest, as it were, and all refuse him employment?
Could such a priest then find refuge in the Society of St Pius X? I wonder. As it would take great courage to defy the bishop (as advised by Bishop Athanasius Schneider) he would have the courage, I should think, to commit to the uncompromising SSPX.
I say:
ReplyDeleteCanon 915: "Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them"; and "any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to holy communion".
I suppose these bishops would explain this away by quoting an atheistic government's edict to the effect that a 'pandemic' makes these times 'not appropriate' for Communion. Whereas the intent of Canon 915 is surely to prohibit giving Communion to people who ask for it outside stipulated Mass times, and that "the law" which can prohibit you is Church law (i.e. if you are not in a state of grace, etc) not secular law).
Bishop Athanasius Schneider has characterized the Catholic response to the COVID-19 pandemic as “revealing the loss of supernatural vision.”
For decades, “many members of the Church’s hierarchy have been immersed predominantly in secular, inner-worldly and temporal affairs and have thus become blind to supernatural and eternal realities.” Accordingly, their reaction “has revealed that they give more importance to the mortal body than to the immortal soul of men.”
Many of the bishops who “tranquilly allowed the poison virus of heretical teachings and practices to spread among their flock,” are now attempting to protect the faithful “from contamination with a material virus.
The bishop quoted from the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. “I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching … that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.”
“I am convinced,” Schneider added, “that Christ would repeat the same words to Pope Francis and to the other bishops who allowed the idolatrous veneration of the Pachamama and who implicitly approved sexual relationships outside a valid marriage, by allowing the so-called ‘divorced and remarried’ who are sexually active to receive Holy Communion.”
The current situation, wherein many parts of the world no public Masses are said, and Holy Communion cannot be received by the faithful, “could be understood by the Pope and bishops as a divine rebuke for the past fifty years of Eucharistic desecrations and trivializations and, at the same time, as a merciful appeal for an authentic Eucharistic conversion of the entire Church.”Schneider expressed his wish that the Holy Spirit may “touch the heart of the Pope and bishops and move them to issue concrete liturgical norms in order that the Eucharistic worship of the entire Church might be purified and oriented again towards the Lord.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-schneider-priests-dont-have-to-obey-bishops-govt-who-suspend-mass-over-covid-19
Karen Raglan says:
ReplyDeleteWe had Ash Wednesday as always. Church was packed! No-one has Covid as far as I know!
I know a gay doctor. I suggest we all reconsider our theology on homosexuality. Bishop Pat seems to have canonised Felix Donnelly. Having listened to Felix radio show for many years perhaps he was a prophet. He certainly advocated for gay marriage and other things long before the German Cardinals.
ReplyDelete