I was riding in my boss’s car, absentmindedly staring out the window. He was taking my coworker and me to lunch, and he turned down a side street to take a shortcut to our destination. On a sketchy street, in a sketchy neighborhood, where most every house either is torn down or needs to be,…
It has become something of orthodoxy within traditional Catholic circles that we’re destined to win the liturgy and doctrine wars in the end, but this isn’t going to happen without evangelization. Traditional communities are fortresses for us to shelter in, but we can’t be content simply to live behind the ramparts. I’ve heard many Latin…
Readers of Father Z’s blog are probably familiar with the motto “Brick by Brick.” The reverend father is here referring to the slow but steady stacking of liturgical improvements over time. I know this works because I have seen it happen, at St. Rita Parish in Alexandria, Virginia (Diocese of Arlington, USA). My then-girlfriend (now…
Perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was introduced a little over a year ago at St. Catherine of Siena parish of Franklin Square, Long Island. The parish had already had adoration for a few hours a month, but then pastor Msgr. Rick Figliozzi expanded it to perpetual adoration (24 hours a day). The chapel of a former convent…
My wife and I took a cooking class once. We made pasta with two unmarried couples we had never met. I decided not to ask the twenty-something couple if it was their first date. Why put them on the spot? The older couple talked about traveling and their dogs. I silently wondered if they had…
May 19, 2012 was a historic day for staff and former students of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College (located in Barry’s Bay, Ontario). On that day, the college rejoiced to see alumnus Kenneth Walker ordained to the priesthood as a member of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. Father Walker was the first alumnus…
The recent Open Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, accusing Pope Francis of heresy, precipitated a large number of commentaries. A common response was to cite ecclesiastical law for the proposition that “no one judges the pope” and then ask, “So what is the point of accusing him of heresy?” This is another…
Recently, my grandson Thomas received his first Holy Communion at a parish I have visited only a few times. My wife and I assist at Mass at a different parish, in part because it offers the traditional Latin Mass. The day after Thomas’s first Holy Communion at the Novus Ordo church, some children at our…
As a Millennial who was weaned on the Novus Ordo Missae, I have been inescapably molded by its main architect, Abp. Annibale Bugnini. Yet there is so much that I didn’t know about Bugnini and his revolution of the liturgy. I didn’t know, growing up, that a man infamously alleged to have been a Freemason…
Now that more and more Catholics are becoming aware of the many differences between the traditional rite of baptism that the Church used for well over a thousand years and its efficient, community-friendly, exorcism-free replacement at the hands of Paul VI, devout men and women have much reason to lament benefits of which they or…
Over the years, many people have written to me for advice about attending Mass when their local situation is deplorably bad. The most common scenario I have been asked about is the following: “Our local parish has only the Novus Ordo, and it’s celebrated with altar girls, extraordinary ministers, communion in the hand, and music…
