'DIED SUDDENLY': REQUIEM FOR A WHITE MARTYR

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Fr Anthony Htun in happier days on earth, in Myanmar

'Died suddenly.' The death of a holy priest at the age of only 51 years is surely an unmitigated tragedy, but today as Massgoers at St Peter Chanel Hastings 'celebrated the life' of Fr Lourdes Anthony Htun, as Requiems go it seemed not much out of the ordinary.

Except for the presence of the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, His Eminence Cardinal John Dew (the only prelate named in the order of service), Bishops Owen Dolan and Peter Cullinane, and a sanctuary full of priests, that is.

'Fr Anthony' as he was called, in the usual palsy-walsy Novus Ordo manner, actually rejoiced in the baptismal name of Lourdes, chosen by his mother for a Marian shrine near his birthplace in Burma (Myanmar). Somehow Fr Craig Butler's mention of that fact in his homily made one Massgoer weep. 

Note, no hugs: respectful handshakes and bows 

Fr Htun was blessed by God with a mother who loved His own Mother and who following her early death must have encouraged Father's vocation to the priesthood from her home in heaven. What an opportunity for sharing "to the full" the joy of Christ, proclaimed in the Gospel (Jn 17:6-19) by the Nuncio. 

"For I have given them the teaching you gave to me." In his brief weekday Mass homilies at Sacred Heart Hastings, a church with no tabernacle, where his Eucharistic Lord is merely a side show in a chapel, which must have grieved Father Htun, he faithfully gave his people Christ's teaching - not only in his words, sung and spoken, but by his reverence and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Not to mention his degree in theology which in his case, unlike many priests', was an advantage probably not appreciated.

Father leads everyone in Grace

In his own country of Myanmar, notwithstanding its military junta and general turmoil, Fr Htun would not have been subjected to the Covid v*cc*ne which is suspected to be the cause of so many otherwise inexplicable deaths world-wide. He came to New Zealand, a mission country, even though Myanmar lacks priests, and was forced in effect - like all diocesan priests - by the NZ Bishops' Conference to take the j*b concocted from the remains of murdered infants "to keep people safe" so that he could minister the Sacraments.

Party food for his birthday

But parishioners complained. They wrote to 'the bishops'. 

Now presumably 'the bishops' - although modernists to a man - know that it was the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) that promoted the use of Latin in the liturgy.

The use of the Latin language
is to be preserved in the Latin rites.

SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM, 36

HTTPS://ALETEIA.ORG/2021/07/20/WHY-LATIN-REMAINS-THE-OFFICIAL-LANGUAGE-OF-THE-CHURCH/

Presumably, then, 'the bishops' would have informed those miserable parishioners of that fact, and that would have been the end of it.

But no. Complaints continued. Fr Htun confided to a friend that he was "walking a tightrope" between 'the bishops' and the laity, and caused such stress that he had "knots" in his stomach. Fr Htun was diabetic and had suffered what sounds like a hypoglycemic attack when he crashed his car (in a minor way) on his way to Mass several months ago. 

Says it all 

His confidant, a prayerful and sympathetic parishioner (thank God there are such) read the warning signs and lent Father a book:

The Catholic Mass : Steps to Restoring God to the Center of Liturgy

required reading for Hastings parishioners

That book gave Fr Htun - who had been "struggling with what he was allowed to do" - courage, in a foreign, modernist country, to resume using a little Latin and find confidence in his preaching, to the extent that he dared to tell Havelock North's Our Lady of Lourdes parishioners at a weekday Mass that in receiving the Blessed Sacrament in the hand (as they almost all do) they risk dropping Our Eucharistic Lord, in unnoticed fragments of the Host, to the floor to be trampled on or vacuumed up (OLOL is scrupulously vacuumed and well kept and in contrast to at least one other HB church, a pleasure to visit - except that the tabernacle is off-side). 

And speaking of tabernacles, he told OLOL how wrong it is that at Sacred Heart Hastings - a faux Mission church of masonic design - Our Lord is kept well away from His people in a side chapel. Christ's loneliness and longing to be with us is not understood, simply because priests' and people's faith in the Real Presence has been lost, more through the irreverence and casual nature of Communion in the hand than any other single factor. Fr Htun's expressed desire to see the tabernacle in Sacred Heart church itself were stonewalled.

And then he died. Suddenly. One parishioner believes God took him "before he could be corrupted" by the spirit of modernism that infects the Catholic Church in New Zealand. 

There was not a hint of any of this in Fr Craig Butler's homily. He was probably told to make it as bland and boring as he could. And he succeeded. Uplifting it was not. Certainly there was no hint of reproach for complaining parishioners and quite likely none of them was there anyway.

The sight of all those elderly priests - and Massgoers - reminds one not just of the patience of God in giving them time to repent and convert, but also of the suggestion at another Hawke's Bay church that a handrail should be installed on the sanctuary steps to make it safer for people to reach the lectern to 'read' or the credence table to be 'special ministers', or for Father to get up and down. 

Sanctuary steps are largely a Vatican II invention. Before Vatican II, generally the sanctuary was only one step higher - if at all - than the nave and the sacristy. There were two or three steps up to the altar itself, steps which were climbed only by Father and altar boys and sacristans (male sacristans, of course). And there was a rail right along the front with gates that gave any elderly or infirm priests something to hold on to. Bear in mind that sanctuaries were populated only by priests, altar boys and sacristans - and that priests died younger! 

Anyway, apparently the Palmerston North Diocese has ruled a railing out of the question. Apparently the word is that if you're too old to get up a couple of steps without a handrail you're too old to 'read' or do anything else up there. A Novus Ordo devotee - who is too old - thinks that's 'just ridiculous'. A traditional Catholic thinks that for once the Diocese is thinking straight. She points out that a sanctuary full of tottery old people is in itself an indictment of the Novus Ordo. 

The recessional hymn, Be Not Afraid, was probably chosen as a sop to any complainers present, to soothe their frayed nerves after hearing Salve Regina (LATIN! Shock, horror!) for which the text was not given in the order of service, sung as it was listed to be, by the priests - but interestingly, the congregation joined in. Maybe there were quite a few of those naughty insurgent (according to Antipope Francis) Traditional Latin Mass people there, who would turn to the heavenly Mother who inspired Fr Htun's mother, to pray for his soul.

Traditional Latin Massgoers would always pray for a soul after death, even for a white martyr such as Father Htun might well be, suffering loneliness in a foreign land where love of God and His Church are not evident as in Catholics in Myanmar, and suffering illness and rejection. 

Novus Ordo people and Latin Massgoers alike would surely pray to Her for Fr Trung Nguyen to whom Fr Htun was friend and mentor, for Her protection over Fr Nguyen and that the tragedy of Fr Htun's death will be mitigated by Her Divine Son, who always draws good out of evil.