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| Saints Domitilla, Nereus, Achilleus, by Peter Paul Rubens |
So,
yesterday the Government says we can celebrate Mass again. And today New
Zealand's Conference of Catholic Bishops says we can't. It's too hard. To
celebrate Mass for only 10 people is too hard.
Unlike thousands in the real world of Lockdown, the bishops know they can't be made redundant, because there's no one to replace them. No one can
make them redundant, and no one needs to. They just are redundant.
They have made that painfully obvious.
"The bishops met this morning
via Zoom video conference, and concluded that the limit of 10 people was too
restrictive to allow even a limited resumption of weekday Mass, and certainly
not any Sunday services."
Dear bishops, in my parish at
least, the limit of 10 people would never be met at a weekday Mass. So how can
it possibly be 'too restrictive'? Of course you will say that many more than
ten would attend on weekdays in most parishes. But not in all.
And the Mass is the Mass is the Mass. It is the power which stays the wrathful hand of Almighty God which otherwise would descend on this sin-soaked world. Christ our Saviour died that horrible death on Calvary - and lived in expectation of it every moment of His life - for every single soul. He would have died just for one. And yet you Bishops - you Shepherds! - say, in effect, it's not worth celebrating Mass for only ten people.
“Like yourselves, we too are
disappointed that we are not yet allowed to assemble in our churches in groups
larger than 10 people,” the
bishops’ letter says.
Please, speak for yourselves, Bishops. I am not 'disappointed'. I am appalled. But not surprised.
The letter notes that the
Government will reconsider the limit of 10 people at religious services in two
weeks. In two weeks!!!
It adds that the Catholic bishops
have today joined with the Anglican Church in asking the Government to look
again with urgency at increasing that number.
Oh, isn't that nice. How ecumenical. Did the Catholic Bishops go cap-in-hand to the Anglicans, looking to hide behind their cassocks? Does the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church have to hold hands with heretics to get a foot in Jacinda's door? Really?
"Not all churches will be
ready to open their doors on Thursday for 'private prayer and the Sacrament of
Reconciliation' but that will be up to individual parishes." Are there priests out there
who are unwilling to unlock their church on Thursday? Really? Why? Has their
vacuum cleaner gone phut?
Behold the distortion not just in the State but in the Church, once the
Catholic State is repudiated and along with it, the Social Kingship of Christ
over all mankind. Dare I say it, even Vatican II recognised how temporal
realities, be they ever so worthy in themselves, can be perverted as they are
now to a hitherto unknown extent, by this Labour Coalition Government and the
Church which collaborates with it.
In the Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Apostolate of the
Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem (1965), we read:
"The whole Church must work vigorously in order that men may
become capable of rectifying the distortion of the temporal order and directing
it to God through Christ. Pastors must clearly state the principles
concerning the purpose of creation and the use of temporal things and
must offer the moral and spiritual aids by which the temporal order may be
renewed in Christ."
Nothing there about taking more than a month off and then finding it too
hard to offer the moral and spiritual aids of Holy Mass and Communion even for
only ten souls.
This morning at St Anthony's Church, Whanganui, it was Fr Francois
Laisney SSPX whose turn it was to be hopping mad. In a polite, restrained,
Gallic way of course. After all, innocent children were listeing.
"The purpose of a church service is not just 'social',
'fellowship', 'community'," said Father (quoting Jacinda Ardern).
"That is not true!"
Tell that to a liberal Catholic of my acquaintance, would you, Father?
'Community' is exactly what he thinks church is for.
"We come to give God worship! That is the First Commandment! It is our first duty! The politicians don't fear the Lord. They kill thousands of innocent children. They are hypocrites! This is persecution!
"We must stand up for God! We must pray and mortify ourselves so that God will deliver us from these wicked politicians! We must ask for God's mercy! People can go to restaurants, watch stupid films. It is absurd! It is deeply wrong and it needs to be denounced as such! We must pray to the martyrs who have died for Christ that we will not fear these politicians!"
Today's saints, Ss Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla and Pancras, are
martyrs. Nereus and Achilleus are said to have been soldiers in the Roman army,
servants and perhaps eunuchs of the lady Flavia Domitilla who converted to
Christianity. They were beheaded.
St Pancras was 14 years old when he was put to death for refusing to
sacrifice to the Roman gods.
It's hard to imagine what they would make of the announcement of the NZ Bishops' Conference today.
As the Divine Office hymn for martyrs goes:
Lord, make us your own soldiers true;
Grant us brave faith, a spirit pure;
That for your name, your cross in view,
We may endure. Alleluia
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