Traditional Latin Massgoers apparently have much more to answer for, according to the American FBI, than even the worst that Pope Francis might dream up. His Holiness might like to hire the FBI to advise his PR department.
A bombshell 8-page memo, retracted by the FBI after intense backlash, shows the agency was planning to intensify surveillance of “Radical Traditionalist Catholics” over the next couple of years. The so-called rad trads' putative crime, according to the memo, is sharing certain ‘“anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT" perspectives with white supremacists.
“At best, this FBI report is a simple mistake; at worst it is a politically-motivated witch hunt worthy of the anti-Catholic Know Nothing party of the 1850s, which provoked violent vigilantism, church burnings, and even the murder of Roman Catholics,” said Michael Matt of the Remnant. “If this FBI report is true, then Catholics should guard against a spike in violence against them."https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-remnants-michael-matt-slams-fbi-witch-hunt-of-latin-mass-catholics/
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| A protest against Bishop Barron's feel-good doctrine |
But for Traditional Latin Massgoers the news from the US is far from all bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7K-fI6uY9U
Twitter was all atwitter and aflutter yesterday over Bishop Robert Barron's reported cancellation of a TLM parish in his diocese of Winona-Rochester. Parishioners were very understandably in high dudgeon.
Some of you will admit to never having heard of Bishop Barron. He's a high-profile prelate of the centrist-right shade, founder of "Word on Fire", and was the host of "Catholicism", a documentary TV series aired on the Public Broadcasting Service.
+Barron is looked down upon somewhat by traditional Catholics for being ever-so-slightly Franciscan - that is to say, "wishy-washy" and confusing - especially in his teaching on homosexuality. You might have seen clips of Bishop Barron’s interview with Shia LaBeouf, the actor who became Catholic after portraying St. Pio of Pietreclina on film. The most shared one has been his statement that he prefers the old Latin Mass to the newer rite because “it feels like they’re not selling me a car.”
But no, +Barron was not following his peer Bishop Peter Cullinane's example in cancelling the TLM (as the latter did in Palmerston North Diocese on behalf of Cardinal John Dew). Far from it. Bishop Barron had found the Traditional Latin Mass a home far more in keeping with the liturgy's incandescent beauty than its previous venue, where the altar was the usual NO table.
Let Fr John Zuhlsdorf (of Father Z's Blog) take up the story:
This is fascinating.
It was moved from a parish where it was being celebrated on a table to a college (actually a school - ed) chapel where there is a high altar and altar railing. This is the chapel where high Masses in the diocese are usually celebrated, and the request to move the Mass came at the request of the priest responsible (Fr. Patrick Arens) for the community as a way of ensuring their stability and also closeness to the young people at the college who support the Mass.
[NB!!!] Barron also granted the SSPX permission to celebrate Mass and sacraments in the same chapel, and assigned the priest responsible for the traditional community with the task of ensuring good relations with the SSPX.
A recent Mass at Our Lady of the Angels chapel I was rather sharp in my original post about what Bp. Barron did. I feel keenly the pain that people have over their access to the Vetus Ordo (Old Mass), in the wake of the unnecessarily cruel Traditionis custodes. I know that the people of that parish will still be disappointed and I won’t patronize them by saying that, “It could have been worse.” All of this is so unnecessary and, as others far more versed in law think, unlawful.
What is important is that as many people as possible frequent the Masses at that chapel and that they conduct themselves with prudence and decorum. It is also important in an ongoing way for them to pray for their bishop.
Again and again we see bishops who know little or nothing about the Vetus Ordo making all manner of decisions about it. That seems imprudent and unjust. I maintain, moreover, that a priest of the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t really know his Rite until he has learned the Vetus Ordo. It stands to reason.
I hope Bishop Barron will take the time to learn how to celebrate the Vetus Ordo in the manner of a priest, even though his way of saying Mass would now be changed due to his episcopal character. One thing many bishops don’t know is that the higher the ecclesial dignity of the one celebrating, the easier it is to be the celebrant. https://wdtprs.com/2023/02/bishop-barron-cancelled-the-faithful-in-his-diocese-who-desire-the-vetus-ordo/
The Diocese of Winona-Rochester stated, “Every effort is being made to find sacred spaces for this purpose which suitably reflect the beauty and dignity of the liturgy.”
The question of the Traditional Latin Mass is particularly nostalgic in Winona, where for years the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, had its seminary. Rejecting liturgical reforms and doctrinal teaching of Vatican II, +Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 by Pope St. John Paul II for consecrating four SSPX priests as bishops without the required ecclesiastical permissions.
Today, the SSPX uses the former Winona seminary as a novitiate. In 2015, Pope Francis granted the faculty for priests of the society to hear confessions, a permission which was renewed in 2016 and “remains until further provisions can be made” according to the apostolic letter Misericordia Et Misera. The Society remains in an irregular communion with the Church.
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| Chapel of St Mary of the Angels St Mary of the Angels, and Archangel Gabriel who announces God's will to men, please pray for our poor stricken nation of New Zealand. |
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