It is a rainy Tuesday evening, and a large group is gathered in the parish hall at St. Paul VI Roman Catholic Church. Not just women are gathered, which is odd for this parish, but men too. And children, countless children. Very odd indeed. An older lady, dressed in a smart looking pink jumpsuit, steps…
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and especially for the enemies of Holy Church. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of these United States, pray for us. Above: the side altar at St. Mary, Mother of God, one of the targeted sites of the ancient Roman Rite…
One year ago today, the Roman Pontiff attempted again to suppress the Apostolic Roman Rite. The first attempt of this nature was done by Pope Paul VI in 1969. At this point we can assess some of the fall out and compare this attempt to the first attempt. Bishops’ Response: Night and Day In the…
Desiderio desideravi: “with desire have I desired,” Our Lord said to His Disciples before the Last Supper, “to eat this Pasch with you.” The quaint Latin phrase is a literal translation of the Greek of the Gospels (Luke 22:15; Matthew 13:14), but it is no less quaint in Greek. It is in fact an expression…
Above: Upside down Pyramid, Bratislava. Like a piece of upside-down modernist architecture, the new papal apostolic letter Desiderio Desideravi: On the Liturgical Formation of the People of God is daringly balanced on one point: that the new liturgy of Paul VI is the fulfillment of the Second Vatican Council’s demand for liturgical reform in Sacrosanctum Concilium. On the truth…
Since my conversion to Catholicism years ago, I had been told the New Mass was created by the Second Vatican Council. Many times, a friend had to remind me that “the Novus Ordo was not created by the Council.” At the time, I thought that whatever infallibility means when you parse it out, it surely…
Happy Ascension Day! When we look at our liturgical texts (from last Sunday to the Vigil to today), we see that this is the glorious ascending of His throne. This is the moment when the Father seats His Son, the Anointed King over souls and society, at His Right Hand in glory. Thus it is a great…
Baylor University sociologist Rodney Stark has written numerous books on religion and particularly on the rise of Christianity. One of his interesting discoveries had to do with conversions; he found that a person’s attachment to the cultural aspects of their religion, specifically its unique rites and doctrines, corresponds to the likelihood that they will remain…
A member of a traditionalist religious congregation that has enjoyed good canonical standing with Rome for a long time sent me an adaptation of the great hymn “Jerusalem” (words by William Blake, set to music by C. Hubert H. Parry), with a commentary, and the prefatory remark: “This Anthem of Holy Defiance is my response…
There has long been a strange asymmetry between conservatives and progressives in the Catholic Church. Theological conservatives—priests and bishops as well as lay people—have prided themselves on their obedience, and progressives have flaunted their disobedience. To give the most extreme examples, progressive bishops would make their chums laugh by talking about how they had tossed…
Every spring, the Church rejoices not only in the victory of Easter and the glories of Mary in her month of May, but also in the ordination of new priests around the world. This year, however, there is a black lining on the silver cloud. We are entering the first ordination season after Francis’s motu…
