THE STATUE, THE CHAIR AND THE CHURCH, PART II

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'The Latin Mass folk', as Bishop Emeritus Peter Cullinane endearingly terms the TLM congregation at St Columba's Ashhurst, are eagerly anticipating his explanation of ordering the statue of the BVM out of the sanctuary last Sunday.

So is my nice old geezer in Dannevirke, who was on the phone this week fuming over the incident of the statue, and also over "the hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably more", spent on wreckovation of churches in the PN Diocese and elsewhere in NZ since Vatican II. 

In an email which +Cullinane says may be used to explain his decision, he states that "people … are entitled to know" (in fact have a duty to find out) "the Church's reasons for what it does (my emphasis). 

"By now of course," the Bishop goes on, "we are not talking about new changes, but the need for catechesis and ongoing formation is a continual one. Unfortunately, this is one of the aspects of parish and diocesan life that the Latin Mass folk absent themselves from."

I feel inclined to ask, re the following quotes:

• "New changes": what other kind of change is there?
• "The need for catechesis and ongoing formation is a continual one": what 'catechesis and ongoing formation' does the good bishop refer to? Catechesis such as I received last Sunday (Ascension), which was all about people who have near-death experiences, how wonderful it is up there in heaven and how they hate waking up again down here on earth, and how such experiences prove that we are all destined (well, I and the rest of that congregation at least) for eternal glory?

The Church's quite logical teaching, that we will all enter God's presence which by definition is filled with beauty, light and peace, BUT only in order to be judged and then most of us, the saints say, relegated to hell, others to purgatory and a blessed very few straight to heaven, was not part of our 'ongoing formation' last Sunday.

The teaching of the Church, Tradition and the Magisterium, doesn't feature in our 'ongoing formation', even or especially at Requiem Masses where we all 'celebrate' the sinful presumption - especially sinful on the part of the priest - that the dear departed has made it straight to heaven and will be staying on.

Or does +Cullinane mean the kind of 'catechesis' that leaves a highly intelligent convert, after 50 years of Sunday homilies, not knowing the difference between judging deeds, and judging the doer of the deeds? Leaving that Catholic in ignorance of the Gospel truth that we are all called to exercise judgment concerning deeds which affect us, to decide whether they are good, bad or indifferent, but never to judge the person who does those deeds, because only God can know their motivation? 

For example, one could say that Catholics are required to exercise judgment concerning the 'catechesis and ongoing formation' they are offered in Palmerston North by Father Joe Grayland and Ms Kate Bell. 

• "The Latin Mass folk absent themselves": I wish!
  
  Unfortunately many, or perhaps most, of 'the Latin Mass folk', like moi, are forced by distance or their local parish ministries to attend the NO and its concomitant 'catechesis' and 'ongoing formation', so that on the occasional Sundays when we're free and have time and petrol to travel, we know only too well what we're missing out on in the way of 'catechesis' and 'ongoing formation'.
  
  In fact, another convert knows it so well, and is so agonised by the heresies foisted on the faithful not just in our parish but by the Vatican, with letters to the PP concerning said heresies unanswered, and suspicions that parishioners were swallowing them hook, line and sinker being confirmed, that she sought advice from an orthodox priest.
  
  That priest didn't hesitate to say that where faith is endangered by persistently heretical sermons we are excused from our Sunday obligation, but are still obliged to sanctify the day in some way, in prayer or perhaps in the live-streaming of the Latin Mass from St Anthony's Parish (Society of St Pius X) in Whanganui (although normally a live-streamed Mass would be no substitute from attending in person).

My nice old geezer in Dannevirke just wishes someone would organize a meeting with the bishop where explanations could be demanded. I said, "Be careful what you wish for; it might be granted.

But a couple of Rad Trads of my acquaintance reckon asking for a meeting with the bishop is a lost cause. One says: 

 "I would love to get an environment where we could get our hierarchy to answer our questions." But as my Rad Trad adds, "We put a page of our questions in the open letter to the bishops (NZ Bishops' Conference).  It won't happen, these guys work behind closed doors with their elite band of allies."

Another opines:

"They" (the bishops) "haven't spent 40 years since V2 corrupting the Church to negotiate now with those of pre-V2 stripe." 

A third opinion:

"I don’t mind explaining this to the Latin Mass people if they want to understand."  There is an offer, lets ask for an explanation.  Should be fascinating."

Yet another faithful Catholic, an adoptive father of several handicapped children, suggested to me this week that God is forcing His Church to her knees. Which made me think, on this Day of Pentecost, that some prayer and fasting initiative is badly needed in the diocese, and will come only from people who have the kind of zeal for the Church which is born of love for Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 

Pentecost is surely the day to ask for divine guidance and/or intervention, simply because "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us" (Rom 5, 5). 

As Pius XII teaches, "It is He" (certain cathedral catechisers please note, 'He' not 'She') "who through His heavenly breath of life is the source from which proceeds every vital and efficaciously salutary action … in the Mystical Body of Christ".

Those demoralized fishermen and tax-gatherers, having prayed with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Upper Room, received an 'explanation' of God's action and were transformed by it, to become apostles even to the ends of the earth. To Palmerston North, in fact.

So if we really "want to understand", we should perhaps turn to the Holy Spirit rather than +Peter Cullinane. 

Because as yet another Rad Trad has remarked: "the Bishop's edict should be ignored, as it contradicts the Sacred Tradition around Our Lady. Apart from that, the said Bishop is retired. He cannot continue to issue edicts."

As a matter of fact, retired or not, Bishop Cullinane's action in ordering Our Lady out of St Columba's sanctuary contradicts not just Sacred Tradition but Sacred Scripture.

And as one of "the shepherds of the flock of God" that is entrusted to him, +Cullinane knows that very well, because he must regularly read, in the Divine Office of Pastors, the instruction of our first Pope, St Peter, as follows:

"Never be a dictator over any group that is put in your charge" (1 Pet 5:4).

 

'Anonymous' says:

My conclusion is that a for a majority of NO (Novus Ordo, New Mass) Catholics, a peaceful life derives from docile acceptance of the changes. 

Trouble is, that is not intellectual, and Catholicism is a function of the will requiring consideration and persuasion; and up till the present it has been believed that our future hereafter was contingent on our best intellectual efforts now. 

Hence people convert to Catholicism after serious investigation. Simple pew sitting and blind acquiescence to change instigated by clerics doesn't fit that process. And that line is not Protestantism.

For comments from Sharon Crooks, please see today's post, BISHOP PETER HAS DONE CATHOLICS THE GREATEST CATECHETICAL HARM.