Sidebar
Browse Our Articles & Podcasts

The Reality of Hell and the Fear of God: Banished from a Church Near You

In my article “The Fifty-Year Descent to Footnote 351: Our Progressive Desensitization to the Most Holy Eucharist,” I spoke of how the liturgical reform’s many sudden and drastic changes in ritual and ceremonial have contributed to a continual erosion of belief in the Mass as a true and proper Sacrifice and in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. In the present article, I wish to look at a closely related topic, namely, how the holy fear of God, which begins in the dreading of His just punishments for sin and matures into love of Him for His own sake and a desire to dwell with Him forever in heaven, has been undermined by the systematic removal of texts from the liturgy concerning the reality of hell and our need for vigilance and self-denial in order to steer clear of it.

There are many articles that show how radically the prayers were altered in the missal of the Novus Ordo, whether to downplay the subordination of earthly to heavenly things (as, for instance, with St. Albert), or to “purge the mythical element” (as with St. Catherine), or to avoid addressing Christ directly as God (as occurred in Advent), or to downplay the kingship of Christ over societies and governments (as with the reinvention of Christ the King). The list goes on and on, as Lauren Pristas, Anthony Cekada, and other authors have shown. Here, my purpose is more modest: I will focus on texts that mention hell, and we will see how they have fared in the time between the 1962 Missale Romanum and its intended replacement of less than a decade later.

The Requiem Mass

The most obvious and eloquent testimony to the Church’s doctrine about the Four Last Things (death, judgment, heaven, and hell, as well as their adjunct, purgatory) is the traditional Requiem Mass, which was prayed in the Latin Rite for so many centuries unchanged and is still used wherever the Latin Mass flourishes. The Requiem Mass organically developed in such a way that there is a balance in its texts between, on the one hand, consolation and confidence in heaven, and, on the other hand, the fear of punishment with prayers for the rescuing of the soul from hell. It is simply catholic in this regard, taking into account the fullness of Gospel teaching about the afterlife. Needless to say, all of these texts must be recited or sung at every Requiem Mass—nothing is “optional,” just as neither are death, judgment, and an eternal destiny of bliss or pain optional.

The Requiem is certainly not lacking in consoling or confident prayers. Look at the Introit, the Epistle (1 Thess 4:13–18), the Gradual (Ps 111:7), the Gospel (John 11:21–27), the Secret, the Communion, and the Postcommunion: all of these ask for a merciful pardon and eternal rest, and express confidence that the soul with faith in Christ “will be in everlasting remembrance” and “not fear the evil hearing” (Gradual). The Tract seems to waver between light and darkness:

Absolve, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from every bond of sin: and by the help of Thy grace, may they be enabled to escape the avenging judgment and enjoy the happiness of light eternal.

The Sequence, the famous “Dies Irae,” gives free rein to terrifying and trembling truths:

The day of wrath, that awful day, shall reduce the world to ashes, as David and the Sibyl prophesied. How great will be the terror, when the Judge shall come to examine all things rigorously! … The written book shall be brought forth, containing all for which the world must be judged. When, therefore, the Judge shall be seated, whatsoever is hidden shall be brought to light, naught shall remain unpunished. What then shall I, unhappy man, allege? Whom shall I invoke as protector, when even the just shall hardly be secure? O King of awful majesty, who of Thy free gift savest them that are to be saved, save me, O fount of mercy! … My prayers are not worthy, but Thou who art good, grant in Thy kindness that I may not burn in the everlasting fire. Give me a place among Thy sheep and separate me from the goats, setting me on Thy right side. When the reprobate, covered with confusion, shall have been sentenced to the cruel flames, call me with the blessed.

The Offertory continues in a similar vein:

O Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and the bottomless pit. Deliver them from the jaws of the lion, that hell not swallow them up, that they be not plunged into darkness. But let the holy standard-bearer Michael lead them into that holy light, R. which once Thou didst promise to Abraham and to his seed. V. Lord, we offer unto Thee sacrifices of praise and prayers; accept them on behalf of those whom we remember this day: Lord, make them pass from death to life, R. which Thou once promised to Abraham and to his seed.[1]

Perhaps most telling of all is the Collect appointed for the day of death or burial:

O God, whose property is ever to have mercy and to spare, we humbly entreat Thee on behalf of thy servant N., whom Thou hast bidden this day to pass out of this world, that Thou wouldst not deliver him into the hands of the enemy, nor forget him forever, but command that he be taken up by Thy holy angels and borne to the fatherland of paradise; that as he put his hope and faith in Thee, he will not suffer the pains of hell, but may possess everlasting joys.

These are strong prayers that deal unabashedly with the gaping jaws of hell and the possibility that we may be consumed by them for unrepented sins. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church; but they may very well prevail against you or me.

Such a liturgy presents the whole of the Catholic Faith. Once again: lex orandi, lex credendi. We believe as we pray. And what we do not pray, we will sooner or later cease to believe—it will be replaced by ersatz doctrine of dubious pedigree.

The Witness of the Lex Orandi

A wholesome recognition of eternal consequences may be seen in any number of places in the traditional Roman missal. Here is the Collect for the feast of St. Nicholas on December 6:

O God, who didst adorn the blessed Bishop Nicholas with countless miracles: grant, we beseech Thee, that by his merits and prayers we may be delivered from the flames of hell.

(In the Novus Ordo, this has been tamed into: “We humbly implore your mercy, Lord: protect us in all dangers through the prayers of the Bishop Saint Nicholas, that the way of salvation may lie open before us.”)

The Friday of Passion Week includes this galvanizing Collect:

Mercifully pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts: that we who restrain ourselves from sin by voluntary chastisement may rather suffer for a time than be condemned to eternal punishment.

The Collect for the Mass of Maundy Thursday speaks with clarity about the fate of Judas:

O God, from whom Judas received the punishment of his guilt, and the thief the reward of his confession: grant unto us the full fruit of Thy clemency; that even as in His Passion our Lord Jesus Christ gave to each retribution according to his merits, so having cleared away our former guilt, he may bestow on us the grace of His resurrection.

The Second Sunday after Easter prays in its Collect:

O God, who, by the humility of Thy Son, hast lifted up a fallen world, grant unending joy to Thy faithful; that those whom Thou hast snatched from the perils of endless death, Thou mayest cause to enjoy neverending delights.

The Third Sunday after Pentecost offers one of those magnificent Collects that says so much in so few words, and can be prayed with fervor by anyone who has the slightest self-knowledge:

O God, the protector of all that trust in Thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, multiply Thy mercies upon us: that having Thee for our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not those which are eternal.

Of course, the only Eucharistic Prayer ever used in the usus antiquior is the 6th-century Roman Canon, which forthrightly implores the Divine Majesty:

We beseech Thee, O Lord, to be appeased and accept this oblation of our service, as also of Thy whole family, and to dispose our days in Thy peace, snatch us from eternal damnation, and count us in the flock of Thine elect.

In addition, one could cite pertinent verses from the Sequences Stabat Mater and Lauda Sion, which, while still given as options in the Novus Ordo, are generally skipped over, due to length; they are, as usual, required in the old Latin Mass on certain days of the year.

Gentle reader, would you believe me if I said that none of the foregoing liturgical texts have survived the liturgical reform? But it is true. In some cases, the texts were removed altogether and can be found nowhere in the new books. In other cases, certain texts (such as the Offertory of the Requiem) can be found in a recondite and rarely-used book like the Graduale Romanum, or tucked away as a fourteenth option somewhere, but in practice they have disappeared from the life of the Church. The only place they thrive is where they are front and center as a required part of her public worship, namely, in communities that avail themselves of the traditional liturgy.

“The Word of God is Not Chained” (2 Tim 2:9) 

Beyond such prayers, hell is mentioned many times each year in the Gospel readings of the traditional Latin Mass, which, thankfully, retains the ancient one-year cycle of readings, rather than the gargantuan off-rhythm two- and three-year cycles of the Novus Ordo. In the usus antiquior, the solemn pronouncement of Our Lord in chapter 12 of the Gospel of St. Luke—“I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him”—is read at least four times in the year, namely, for the feast of St. Justin Martyr (April 14), SS. John and Paul (June 26), the Holy Maccabees (August 1), and SS. Tiburtius and Susanna (August 11), as well as any other time the common of several martyrs might be used. In comparison, this passage is read once every other year in the Novus Ordo. The parallel passage in chapter 10 of the Gospel of St. Matthew—“And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell”—is read for four feasts, those of St. Polycarp (January 26), St. Cyril of Jerusalem (March 18), St. Athanasius (May 2), and St. Irenaeus (July 3). In the Novus Ordo, it is read on one Saturday each year, and one Sunday every third year.

Matthew 5:22, “Whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire,” is part of the Gospel on the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. In the Novus Ordo, this fortunately appears two weekdays per year, and one Sunday every third year. The pericope of Matthew 18:1–10, which includes these haunting words—

Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. And if thy hand, or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

—is read at least twice each year in the usus antiquior, namely, for the Dedication of St. Michael Archangel (September 29) and the Holy Guardian Angels (October 2). In the Novus Ordo, astonishingly, these verses are never read at all: the “friendly” verses 1–5, 10, and 12–14 are read a number of times, but the above-cited verses about hell-fire are excised. Too scary, I guess.

If I have done the math correctly, over a three-year period, one who attends the traditional Latin Mass daily will hear these particular hell-mentioning Gospels 33 times, while one who attends the Novus Ordo will hear them 13 times.[2] Obviously, there are a lot of other factors one would need to take into account for a full comparison of the presentation of the four last things in both forms of the Roman Rite, a project that exceeds the purpose of this article. Nevertheless, the comparison just given already exposes the kind of deep differences in lex orandi that I am claiming are relevant for understanding the confusion of our times in doctrine (lex credendi) and morals (lex vivendi).[3]

Spiritual Consequences for the Faithful

We have seen that the traditional liturgy prays for the living and the dead in a realistic manner and instructs us accordingly, emphasizing the mercy of God and the attainability of eternal life but not neglecting the Lord’s “avenging judgment” and the real possibility of damnation. The liturgy inculcates in us a lively awareness of our weakness and dependency on grace, the gravity of sin, the need for penance and asceticism, and the fundamental role that fear of the Lord must play in our interior life. The basic attitude of the worshiper is the one praised by the Psalmist: “Serve ye the Lord in fear, and rejoice before Him with trembling” (Ps 2:11).[4]

Instructed by the Mass of the Ages and other liturgical texts,[5] we believe that (a) not everyone automatically goes to heaven, (b) there is an almighty, all-knowing, all-just Judge who will scrutinize our works and give us what we ourselves have sought in our choices—whether glory or shame, beatitude or damnation; (c) the departed soul desperately needs our prayers because we wish them to be released from the agonies of purgatory, and one of the ways that happens is when members of the Church Militant offer prayers and penances for the dead.

Our actions in this life have eternal consequences, for good or for ill. One of those actions we must discern is whether we are living right now in accordance with the commandments of God, especially the Ten Commandments. This is not an optional examination of conscience for the extra-pious but a required examination for every human being who has reached the use of reason. In other words, no one may excuse himself before the Judge by saying: “I didn’t know I was supposed to examine my conscience on whether or not I was adhering to the Ten Commandments.” There are some things no one can be blamed for not knowing if they were never told, but there are other things—the natural moral law, in particular—that we are obliged to know and are capable of knowing. Moreover, the Catholic, having examined his conscience in this manner, must make a discernment about whether he is in a state of sanctifying grace, that he may approach the heavenly Banquet to receive the wounded and glorified Flesh of the Savior. This, after all, is the teaching of no less an authority that the Apostle St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:27–29:

Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink of the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself; and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eatheth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord.

But these verses, too, have been entirely omitted from the Novus Ordo. One begins to detect a pattern in all of this. The frightening fact, ladies and gentlemen, is that the Novus Ordo systematically downplays the reality of hell.[6]

The virtual disappearance of certain liturgical prayers and readings, and the significant reduction of others, is surely part of the reason, arguably the principal reason, that today’s Catholics are inclined to hold both universal salvation AND an “everyone is welcome” attitude about who may receive Holy Communion. The one view fits the other hand-in-glove.

The Amoris Laetitia debacle can be solved only when there is a broad return to traditional (i.e., Catholic) teaching on all of these subjects. The restoration of this teaching depends for its penetration, efficacy, and longevity on zealous adherence to traditional liturgies (Eastern and Western) where they already flourish, and their complete restoration wherever they do not. As far away as this goal seems, we must never tire of pursuing it, for the bond that unites the lex orandi, the lex credendi, and the lex vivendi is intrinsic, indissoluble, and inevitable.

 

NOTES

[1] Incidentally, the great antiquity of this Offertory is evident in a number of features. First, it preserves the form of a responsory, which was the original form of all the offertory antiphons. As time went on, the other offertory chants were shortened, but this one always remained in full. (The original verses for other Offertory chants are available in the Offertoriale published by Solesmes.) Second, its Old Testament resonances are characteristic of the classic prayer of the Roman Church, in particular the mention of the promise to Abraham and to his seed (i.e., Christ, as St. Paul teaches in Galatians), and the use of the phrase “sacrifice of praise,” which is how the 6th-century Roman Canon describes the Eucharistic oblation. We are peering here into the very heart of the Roman Catholic liturgy.

[2] The numbers I am adding together are (4+4+4)+(4+4+4)+(1+1+1)+(2+2+2) for the usus antiquior Gospels, and (1+0+1)+(1+1+2)+(2+2+3)+(0+0+0) for the Novus Ordo.

[3] The ideal study aid for this question is Matthew P. Hazell’s Index Lectionum: A Comparative Table of Readings for the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite (n.p.: Lectionary Study Press, 2016). My Foreword to this volume goes into a number of other disturbing aspects of the revised lectionary. Recently I wrote about the significance of the fact that the Gospel of the wedding feast at Cana is read every year in the traditional Mass (Second Sunday after Epiphany) but only once every three years in the Novus Ordo (Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C).

[4] St. Augustine comments on this verse: “Serve the Lord with fear, lest what is said, You kings and judges of the earth, turn into pride: And rejoice with trembling. Very excellently is rejoice added, lest serve the Lord with fear should seem to tend to misery. But again, lest this same rejoicing should run on to unrestrained inconsiderateness, there is added with trembling, that it might avail for a warning, and for the careful guarding of holiness.”

[5] Such as the Athanasian Creed Quicumque vult, whose opening words are like a throwing-down of the gauntlet to indifferentism and universalism: “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.”

[6] We often see the same thing in the dumbed-down versions of traditional prayers that are used in many catechism classes today. I came across an Act of Contrition in a CCD classroom that read more or less as follows: “My Lord, I am sorry for my sins. Help me to live like Jesus and to love everyone I meet. Amen.” A prayer of this sort does not adequately express either perfect or imperfect contrition. Contrast it with one of the traditional versions of the Act of Contrition: “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all of my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because these sins have offended Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Amen.”

266 thoughts on “The Reality of Hell and the Fear of God: Banished from a Church Near You”

  1. The traditional Ukrainian funeral liturgy mentions that we are “food for worms.” No beating around the bush there!

    Reply
    • Also in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, there are innumerable mentions of hell during the liturgical year.

      Meatfare Sunday aka Sunday of the Last Judgement (the same day as Sexagesima on the TL calendar) is coming up a few weeks from now. Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46.

      Great and Holy Tuesday (the longest single Gospel of the whole year): Matthew 24: 36 – 26: 2. (which includes Matt. 25 above)

      5th Sunday after Pentecost: Matt. 8: 28-34; 9: 1. (the demoniacs of the Gerasenes)

      11th Sunday after Pentecost: Gospel of the Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18: 23-35)

      14th Sunday after Pentecost: Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22: 2-14)

      16th Sunday after Pentecost: Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25: 14-30 – this is part of the Gospel for Great Tuesday too)

      22nd Sunday after Pentecost: Parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31)

      23rd Sunday after Pentecost: The demoniac (Luke 8: 26-39)

      26th Sunday after Pentecost: Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12: 16-21)

      27th Sunday after Pentecost: Epistle: Ephesians 6: 10-17

      28th Sunday after Pentecost: Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14: 16-24)

      ***

      I admit that I was pleasantly surprised to see that the traditional Latin Epistle for the deceased is almost the same as our own (1 Thessalonians 4: 13-17). The Latin Gradual for the deceased is the same as the Prychasten for St. John the Baptist or 1 male saint. (Psalm 111: 7 Douay).

      Reply
    • St Louis de Montfort wrote that we should constantly remind ourselves that we are “vas stercorum, semen putridum, esca vermium”.

      Reply
  2. The form and intention of the Novus Ordo has rendered it impossible for our family to attend any Novus Ordo Mass. I believe there is a canon law which states one is obligated to participate and assist at the Mass. I am not obligated to participate at the Novus Ordo as it is a direct assault on the faith and sacrilegious. CannonLaw 1247

    Reply
      • The Novus Ordo has poisoned the faith Al P.
        The first priest I ever heard speak of reverence to the Eucharist, since my first grade Dominican Nun, and diocesan priest at that time was……..Bishop Athansius Schneider, back in in the mid 90s when he was a guest on MOther Angelica. IT was music to these ears, and I could not believe it took a bishop from a country, I had never heard of to be the first priest who spoke to the Truth of the Eucharist. Yet, I was in the NO and went along. ( I blame myself), no one else.

        Our family has attended TLM for four years now. I will always be grateful to Benedict XVl ( even though, I wish he would have gone farther with the TLM). I have sat in beautiful churches, NO Masses, and found myself wondering,
        “Why? Why did they rip these altars away, the altar rails? No easy task.”
        We know why.

        For now, we attend only TLM in our diocese, ( two very remarkable priests) as the FSSP parish is now too far of a drive. My daughter will be making her Confirmation February 11th, next month. We shall have family there,
        and I am hoping and praying eyes will be open and they too will realize not only what they have missed, but how much is given to God at the TLM, and, that no matter how much or how little one sings, claps hands, shakes their neighbor hands, ” brings the gifts of up”………..Christ actually comes to each of us at the Mass BECAUSE of CHRIST through the priest. But, you know this and I admire how you have protected your family from the harm in losing the faith.
        BTW – One NO Mass I was forced to attend, as we were out of town, this little verse perked my ears up:
        The NO Mystery of Faith: ” Christ has Died, Christ has Risen, etc.” ???????????????
        Wrong: The mystery of the Catholic faith is the Eucharist.

        Reply
        • Exactly, the Mysterium Fidei is referring to the grace of Transubstantiation that has just taken place, not to a response of the people. Which is why the proper response to the Mysterium Fidei is: Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine, et tuam resurrectionem confitemur, donec venias.

          Which exclaims our faith in Christ’s Crucified and Resurrected body present in mystery on the Altar until it is made MANIFEST for all eyes to see at the Second Coming in Glory.

          Reply
      • Nope, that could lead to hijacking the thread. However, if one has the opportunity to attend the TLM or an Eastern Rite Catholic Mass, then one should. It is far superior to the Novus Ordo in its Holy Form. However, one should never simply excuse themselves from attending the Holy Sacrifice to fulfill their obligation simply because it is Novus Ordo. If one must attend it, then attend it as the Blessed Ever Virgin Mary, St. John, and St. Mary Magdalene attended the Crucifixion of Our Blessed Lord and offer any suffering in union with Him for the restoration of the Sacred Rites. If Father does what he should, then it is a Valid and Licit offering of the Holy Sacrifice (if he doesn’t then get out of there pronto!)

        I am a Diocesan Priest assigned to parishes in the Novus Ordo, so I do what I am assigned to do, but I do it as best I can, which means eliminating as much of the watering down as possible. And I explain to deficiencies as they appear and encourage the people to see them for what they are and seek a return to what is better.

        And CS and I go way back to CM days, ah long ago, and she knows that I care for her and her salvation and would never intentionally lead her astray.

        Reply
          • Some of us horrible priests are trying to save the souls we have been assigned to and suffer greatly everyday to do what we can to assist them enter into eternal life. Which is why we do not abandon them, but struggle to elevate them so that we can, one day, rejoice together in this life in the Blessed Liturgy and forever in Heaven.

          • Sorry, I was feeling down. You must realize that I am an oddity on this site. I am a priest who offers the Novus Ordo as piously as I can everyday and I frequent and love a website to advocates for the TLM, as it should. And I have to read many posts, almost everyday, that condemn the Novus Ordo and those who offer it.

            Many times people here, not intentionally, speak evil of every priest who offers the Novus Ordo Mass as being corrupt, or stupid etc…and here I am. And I love them in Christ, and understand their suffering and pain, as I share it, but being pathetic and weak, I can feel dejected and rejected, simply because I am trying to fulfill my vows.

            Truly, the Church is in Crisis. May God deliver us. Amen.

          • I’m an “oddity” too. I’m a Ukrainian Greek Catholic who loves the Divine Liturgy AND the TLM. I know both Latin and Byzantine versions of the Angelical Salutation and still say the RC act of contrition: “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offeneed Thee…” because that’s what we were taught in CCD by the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate (SSMI) when I was little.

            I probably know more about the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings at least as well as I know my Byzantine Tradition. (90% of my books are Roman Catholic.)

            My late father once said to me: “Are you Byzantine or Roman?” I replied: “I’m Catholic.”

            I love both the Byzantine Tradition and Latin Tradition. The more I learn, the more I appreciate them.

          • Yes, but I don’t ever recall anyone thrashing those who attend or offer the Byzantine Liturgy on this site…;-)

          • Try not to feel down Father. Obviously you are doing everything you can to say a valid Mass. I live in a parish where there is a very good and Holy Priest. He also says the NO Mass. I never have to worry about the intent. We have a VERY liberal Ordinary. He is a Franciscan but formed by South American Jesuits. (nuff said). This Priest is doing everything thing he can but trying to stay off the Bishops radar walking on eggshells. However there is also a TLM Chaplaincy by FSSP in the next town, so that is where I have attended for the last decade and a half. If by some reason we lost our TLM, while I don’t like the modern rubrics, I would satisfy my obligation at the parish Church. I loved your comparison of the NO Mass to the foot of the cross at the Crucifixion. Very true. There was also massive irreverence that day too.

          • Father, if Novus Ordo Mass was ad orientem and Communion was received kneeling and on the tongue, would it satisfy the “traditional” Catholics? Or will they still say Latin is better and required?

          • FWIW, in our Dominican parish in Portland, we have the NO, communion received kneeling at the altar rail with about 80% receiving on the tongue. There was an attempt at having a TLM Latin on Saturday mornings, but there was lack of interest. However, there is a sung Dominican Rite Mass in Latin every Sunday morning at 11, with Gregorian chant choir, but I have never attended and cannot speak to the number of parishioners.. The parish is obviously traditional, but overall, I don’t think there is anything like a thirst for Latin.

          • No, that would not satisfy because there are several other defects of the Novus Ordo and quite simply the Tridentine Rite is far more beautiful and well thought out, it is more faithfully conveys the Catholic Faith to the people in the pew.

          • It’s not solely the difference of language but more importantly, the change of form. One reason why I believe the term Latin Mass makes no sense to distinguish the ‘old Mass’ from the NO and confuses the less well informed. The NO is also in fact a latin Mass (and should be). Better to use the term Traditional Mass for the ‘Mass of Ages’. Read Michael Davies’s trilogy, if you can get hold of it. Provides the context!

          • Father, since I’ve been involved with the Marian Movement of Priests, I pray daily for all priests and bishops. This is one of my prayers, from St. Therese of Lisieux:

            O Jesus, Eternal Priest,
            keep Your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,
            where none may touch them.

            Keep unstained their anointed hands,
            which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

            Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with
            Your Precious Blood.

            Keep pure and unworldly their hearts, sealed with the sublime
            mark of Your priesthood.

            Let Your Holy Love surround them
            from the world’s contagion.

            Bless their labours with abundant fruit,
            and may the souls to whom they minister
            be their joy and consolation here
            and their everlasting crown hereafter.

            Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us;
            obtain for us numerous and holy priests. Amen.

            God bless you, Fr.

          • Thank you. I stand with you, as a fellow “horrible diocesan Novus Ordo priest trying to save the souls” of those assigned to me. I also offer the Mass of the Ages every Sunday, holy day, First Friday, and First Saturday.

            Indeed. The Church is in crisis. May God deliver us.

          • I regularly attend the Novus Ordo Mass here and I always leave nourished. Take heart, Father!

            For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show
            great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the
            elect.

            Mathew 24:24
            Douay-Rheims Bible

          • I’m an oddity too, as I have no choice but to attend Novus Ordo liturgy. I do not disparage it, because I see no constructive results from it. As Polycarp said above : this is what I have been given at this time. I thank God for it every day. Neither do I harbor any fantasy that the new liturgy is in any way as sublime and pleasing to God as the Tridentine. Of course it is not. But after the sinful life I have lead, I deserve no better. I do sympathize with those who, unlike me, never lost the faith, and have suffered through all the crises. I bear with their criticism of the New Liturgy, and try to imagine myself in their shoes.

        • Yes, I do trust you. You had better believe it.
          OK…..so here’s my game plan:
          1.) . Should I be required to attend a NO Mass in my diocese or anywhere else, I shall do so and make certain I say a Rosary before Mass.
          2.) I shall sit towards the back of the Church – ( no veiling, as it causes attention)
          3.) Keep my eyes on the Crucifix, as I try to do…..given there is one on the altar.
          4.) Pray for God to forgive me if I become self righteously judgmental….during the Mass, especially when the abuses mount.
          5.) . Pray for the priest not to forget his priesthood, and his authority: to believe in his powers of Ordination.

          Don’t want to hijack the thread. Stay with us Father RP……..

          Reply
          • I wouldn’t allow them to cause you to remove your veil. If you want to were a veil out of reverence for the Lord and the Holy Angles, then you ought to. If people stare use it as an opportunity to pray for them to be enlightened by Christ.

        • Thank you Father, it is good to hear your words. I must attend a Novus Ordo parish too. I just content myself that this is what the Lord has provided at this time. I concentrate on the beautiful statues. The parish is 95% Hispanic, they have a deep respect for the Eucharist. Only half receive communion and of those 95% receive on the tongue–it is the norm in this parish. I have friends who won’t ever go to a NO Mass but I cannot excuse myself from a valid Mass. I believe the day is coming soon when the schism will be more manifest and will have no place to go though.

          Reply
        • “However, one should never simply excuse oneself from attending the Holy Sacrifice to fulfill their obligation simply because it is Novus Ordo. If one must attend it, then attend it ..”

          I agree with you Father, when it comes to me personally, however I refuse to do so so with my children. They have never experienced the NO. I can handle it and filter out any nonsense; for them it would just be utterly confusing and I would even say destabilising to their faith/potentially damaging.

          God bless you, Father, for your vocation and the suffering you endure through obedience. It must be very tough. And I did not mean to hurl abuse with any of the above. Simply sharing.

          Reply
    • I’m not offended. And, ad orientem worship is still assumed in the Novus Ordo Missal, despite what many Bishops say and do. And none of them has the authority to forbid it in anyway.

      Reply
    • No! I assure everyone that when as another Christ I offer the Novus Ordo it is never a direct or indirect assault on the faith, nor sacrilegious or causes spiritual harm – if celebrated rightly by Christ the Eternal High Priest it is efficacious, blessed and saving……don’t confuse any abuses with the Holy Mass Itself, that is a tool of the adversary, stay hidden in the Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, with your Angel Guardians and Patron Saints, the Holy Poor Souls, and live intoxicated with God the Beloved Trinity Lamb, possessed and consumed by His Love and being Him who is Love everywhere to everyone!!!

      Reply
      • Thank you, Padre, for these words of encouragement. And for referring to the priest as another Christ. You are right, we are safe if hidden in the Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

        Reply
        • I do not believe myself or anyone posted that the priest offering any Mass is not Persona Christi.

          The point, which seems to be lost somehow, is that if one is to recognize Hell and God’s justice, one must recognize the Sacrifice of the Mass and the greatest gift of the Eucharist. The Novus Ordo Mass ( Liturgy), seems to minimize both.

          Reply
          • Actually, I had written more on that in my post, then deleted it, and now I realize it lost some cohesion, cs. I should clarify: Padre’s comment reminded me of a deacon who once told me, “I don’t give a damn what anyone says, I bow to the altar, not to the priest”. Comments like this do a lot of damage, as do the abuses many of us have witnessed, but I did not respond to him because I did not know how back then. Today I could tear up his words, and I’m still learning. I guess I was reflecting that in our cultural regression toward paganism, we cannot just go to Mass, but we have to be informed of what’s been going on post VII, study our history, etc. in order to defend the faith to Catholics still in a slumber, like I was only 3 years ago.

            (Thankfully, this deacon was stripped of his deacon duties by our bishop after he began practising reiki.)

          • Thank you for your reply. I agree.

            When I see a priest, whether it be at the most irreverant or most reverant Mass: I see a priest and all that he has been given through Ordination.
            In fact, if I were to be pushed into the presence of even a renegade, Vatican approved, pro homosexual priest – I see a priest, but a very fallen one.

      • I do not, nor never do I hope to infer that the priest, whether offering the Novus Ordo or the TLM or any other Rite is not Persona Christi. And if I did that, I think I am about to take my post off of this site, for the possibility of this misinterpretation of my post greatly saddens me and I offer my apologies.

        I am afraid I shall have to disagree you on your first premise. I am sorry.

        I do not want to be intoxicated with God, I want to KNOW Him and follow Him.

        Reply
  3. Great informative article. It is timely as I have been wavering about attending a Novus Ordo Church for daily Mass because it is 5 minutes away. We attend an FSSP parish on Sundays but its distance makes daily Mass impossible. But I think I will stay away from the N.O. at least until it is the only (and I mean the only) possibility to fulfil my obligation.

    Aside from the butchered Mass there are the altar ‘girls’ and Communion-hander-outers (usually pant-suited, grey haired ‘church-ladies’), Communion in the hand, the priest as entertainment, the noise and constant activity…I’ll stay home and say my Rosary.

    Reply
    • If the NO that offers Daily Mass does so reverently (in accord with it’s rubrics) then for the sake of consoling Jesus and for the reception of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and the offering of Christ for the salvation of souls, you should go. Say your Rosary and go.

      And if that parish doesn’t (which upon reading the rest of your post appears not too), look for one that does. Daily Mass is one of the greatest blessing that there is in this life, if no the greatest blessing.

      Reply
  4. “Gentle reader…” No, the “gentle” part disappeared a long time ago. Face it, a lot of clerics don’t believe in Hell, or at least that it is likely that many go there. Direct contradiction to scripture and the universal teaching of the Church. Now we have to practice our Faith and try to save our souls in spite of so many leaders in the Church.

    Reply
  5. Because of everything (and more) the author writes above, my family goes ONLY to either the local TLM or the Catholic Byzantine Divine Liturgy. The Novus Ordo must go- and everything else associated with it in the Latin rite- including ALL of the Second Vatican Council. If my family and I ever lost the ability to attend either the TLM or the Divine Liturgy, I do not know what we would do. The nearest SSPX parish is over three hundred miles away!

    Reply
    • Well, I agree with you on those points. I think the time for the church to evaluate the post Vatican II changes such as the Novus ordo missae, ecumenism among other things is long overdue. Because to be frank I don’t think it’s working. Whether we will get an honest discussion amongst our prelates is another question.

      Reply
      • “I think the time for the church to evaluate the post Vatican II changes….”

        Welcome to the club. Who’s going to do the evaluating? Is there a Cardinal on the face of the earth even willing to tell the truth to La Bergoglio?

        Reply
        • Yeah it’s wishful thinking on my part to think that PF’s immediate successor will do it, but somebody needs to do it, bad popes don’t live forever and the bishops can’t ignore the reality of what I said above.

          Reply
    • Maronite Greek , Russian, Eastern rite Melkite , Anglican ordinate plus east rite church devout churches are worth joining as well..

      Reply
    • Attend a traditional Ukrainian Greek Catholic funeral with Parastas and you’ll get a hefty dose of the four last things. Trust me – I’m Ukrainian Greek Catholic. ????

      Reply
    • For Advent I offered four classes for my parishes…On the Four Last Things, each class was about 1:15 minutes with hand outs. It is amazing how many Catholics did not even know what the Four Last things are! Well, at least thirty of them know now, and I can say that it benefited them greatly.

      I explained that it was very fitting for Advent having Four Weeks and being a focus on the Final Judgement as well as the Coming of the Christ into the World to deliver us from Hell.

      Reply
          • Looking forward to it…..no pressure.

            The Catholic laity, growing up, always seemed to have the sense of humility about their eternity: heaven was never a guarantee. and souls in Purgatory were prayed for each day in school, and our silence during
            chatty moments in schools was offered up for the poor souls in Purgatory. We seemed to understand that hell was a definite possibility for the soul, and that God was justified. I think some non Catholics at the time thought the faith was filled with a bunch of guilt ridden, neurotics.

            I went to my first Protestant funeral about 30 years ago, as a youngster and saw many of the family members wearing “white”., long skirts, dresses. I was told they wore white because they were happy their mother( the deceased) was in heaven now.

            I was silent.

            All I could think to myself was, ” How do you know?” And how wrong it was that not many would probably be praying for her now.

          • I have the handouts, pray that I actually do the good and turn them into articles. I wrote the handouts, but they are bullet points which I filled out in the lectures.

          • Please do!!! As I said in my lengthy reply to Sheryl Nash-Dixon, Meatfare Sunday aka Sunday of the Last Judgement is coming up in a few weeks.

            Sunday of Zaccheus (last Sunday 1/14) – Luke 19: 1-10
            (If Easter is in March, this Sunday night be omitted)

            Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18: 10-14)

            We have NO fasting or abstinence from this Sunday to the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. One doesn’t want to imitate the Pharisee (c.f. v. 12).

            Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Septugesima on the TL calendar) Luke 15: 11-32

            Meatfare Sunday aka Sunday of the Last Judgement (Sexagesima on the TL calendar)

            Last day for meat products. Matt. 25: 31-46

            Cheesefare Sunday aka Forgiveness Sunday (Quinquagesima on the TL calendar) – Last day for dairy products. Matt. 6: 14-21

            Pure Monday – First Day of the Great Fast. Strict fast and abstinence. No meat and dairy products or anything containing them.

            Ash Wednesday – First day of Lent in the RCC. No meat.

      • I found a Tan book on the Four Last Things by Fr Martin Von Cochem that turned my world sideways. I spent a long ride to the Carolinas reconsidering what I thought I knew, especially about Hell.

        Reply
          • I donated it to the Catholic community center of my alma mater. They had a nice library, including a complete set of The Fathers of the Church series.

            Please pray for Bishop Athanasius Schneider at Mass in the morning. I don’t know the new RC calendar, but Jan 18 is the feast of Sts. Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria on the Byzantine calendar.)

            Good night and God bless!

          • Dear Father,

            You’re right. January 17th is the Feast of St. Anthony the Great.

            On the Byzantine calendar, however, St. Athanasius has 2 feast days.

            January 18th is the Feast of of St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Alexandria. May 2nd is the principal Feast of St. Athanasius alone. (I made my First Holy Communion on his Feast Day.)

            Since St. Athanasius is the Patron of His Excellency, that’s why I suggested offering up the Mass for Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

            I couldn’t reply to you last night since it was going for 12:30 am and I had to go to bed.

            Btw, are you on the West Coast? Or a nighthawk like me ?????

            In Christ the King,

            Margaret

        • “I found a Tan book on the Four Last Things by Fr Martin Von Cochem that turned my world sideways.”
          Four years ago my then teenage son, refused to go to Consession. He attended Sunday Masses (NO) and abstained from Communion, but wouldn’t go to Confession. Then one day I gave him this little book to read. What a change in attitude over the night!

          I told that story to my personally very holy but publicly very timid parish NO priest when he didn’t want to talk about repentance and hell. Father ask for the book. He returned it one month later. He told me he had glanced over it but didn’t like it. Too rigid for his parishoners. So he keeps talking about God’s Mercy and ommits His Justice.

          Reply
  6. In 1886, Pope Leo XIII composed a prayer to St. Michael after a mystical experience during Mass. The Pope ordered its inclusion in the Leonine prayers to be said at the end of Mass and so it was until 1964. The prayer specifically mentions hell and petitions St. Michael to “cast down into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits…..”

    In 1964, Satan died, or took an indefinite vacation, or something……..anyway, whatever it was, we ditched the prayer because we don’t need it no more. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, we stopped talking about hell at precisely this very time. We told St. Michael to stand down, so he did, and we turned our backs on the reality of eternal fire. It’s scary, anyway and we don’t want to frighten the kids. OK, so Our Lady showed hell to some little kids at Fatima but that was a long time ago and anyway, the Third Secret wasn’t needed so we stuffed it in a drawer. Too many other much more exciting things going on, like Vatican II.

    Yesiree, we’ve come a long way. Hey, did you guys know that in some places, they still have exorcists? Amazing, huh?

    Reply
    • Satan cannot die. Angels – good and bad – are spirits. As such, they do not have bodies; ergo, they cannot die. Nor does he take a vacation (remember 1 Peter 5: 8 – from where 1P5 gets its name?).

      I know you’re being sarcastic but imo one should be very serious when talking about the enemy.

      Reply
      • Could a parish priest, in theory, still pray the St. Michael prayer if he wanted to after Mass? We pray for canonization of such and such person after Mass, so why not offer one more prayer?

        Reply
        • We do in our Novus Ordo Parish Mass, without fail with our Pastor, when we have a visiting or retired Priest saying Mass there’s a 50/50 chance of the Prayer to St. Michael being said

          Reply
          • If you don’t have a fifty to spare simply ask him nicely whilst holding a baseball bat. In the
            event that he refuses, ask him to bless the sporting object which then arguably becomes an
            instantaneous “sacramental” and then proceed to use said object to “encourage” him via a
            “somewhat” erroneous interpretation of The Church Militant. 🙂

          • Approach your priest and ask, if he doesn’t want to do it. Wait until after the procession gather your friends kneel and pray it sincerely with whoever will join you. Sooner or later others will join you and before long the whole parish might join you, sensus fidelium

          • At my former Novus Ordo Parish, I and another gentlemen, involved in pro life, asked our priest.
            He was very receptive.
            Do you know, that even when the pastor is away, the prayer is automatically prayed?
            You are not a busybody by asking. But always respect the collar, of course.
            God’s graces are working overtime for our priests……in particular, I do believe.
            Ask….what have you got to lose?

          • I’m just an anonymous person in my parish…technically, I’m not even registered at the parish. I just attend it because it’s more…traditional…than the chapel/parish I was confirmed in. Maybe I’ll ask in the anonymous “ask the priest a question” box…

          • We have a prayer for canonization of Venerable ________ . But the back cover has a left side as well, so I don’t see why another prayer couldn’t be pasted….

        • I always just do it by myself, alone after Mass. Along with the other prayers after Mass that Paul VI discarded in 1964. I don’t bother to ask anyone or mention it.

          Reply
  7. Once again, Professor Kwasniewski has offered us some good food for thought. It is undeniably true that the average Catholic today looks at Heaven as a given and scarcely even considers Hell a reality, and if they do, it only has Hitler and his ilk as its inhabitants. The watering down of the Liturgy and especially the pastel preaching and teaching of the average modern priest is undeniably largely responsible for this.
    I preach in the Novus Ordo everyday, and if one pays attention, their is ample opportunities to speak of Hell and the reality of Judgement and Justice and the necessity of sincere repentance and contrition. However, many take the easy and ever widening way and skip it all together (unless there is a need to raise funds!) or barely allude to it with many assurances that the people shouldn’t worry etc…God is Love! And He Loves You…blah, blah, blah.
    I have found that the easiest way leave people in their sins is to tell them God Loves them while omitting the necessity of them Loving Him in return which requires Holy Obedience to His Commandments.

    Reply
    • I’ve seen all too many examples of the watering down of the liturgy to the point to the extent that I can say with confidence many if not most Catholics in my diocese: don’t see the mass as a sacrifice (albeit not a propitiatory one), anyone who lives a “good life” goes to heaven (note Christ is not necessary), and only Protestants evangelize – “speaking to others about God and the Catholic church to non believers is very divisive”.
      To my horror I’ve even seen a priest say after the gospel reading of Matthew 16 that he will not talk about Peter and the Papacy because he doesn’t want to sow division or exclude any Protestants who may be present.
      I can talk on and on with no end, but what you’ve said is true and I can only recommend everyone to have a look at this article which describes our post concilliar period: https://onepeterfive.wpengine.com/catholics-bad-evangelizing-change/

      Reply
      • I was once hostage at a Mass where the Gospel was clearly about Hell and Judgment (sorry, I don’t remember which Gospel, as it was 15 years ago) and I remember thinking to myself, how is father going to side step this. It was easy, he ignored it all together and preached about how preachers needed to be more like Dan Brown (of the da Vinci Code) and intrigue their audience with exiting stories that captivated the people. And he was preaching to a hundred seminarians…

        I’m not kidding.

        Reply
        • And we wonder how the seminarians are being formed nowadays. I’m just not very optimistic after I saw ecology courses being added to the seminary formation. We have enough priests who are more social workers than shepherds who are concerned with the salvation of souls.

          Reply
          • Hopefully seminarians are formed properly before they even enter so they can detect bad teachings while there

          • Well, the ferret could have ran around and made whatever noise a ferret makes and it would not have been in anyway near as offensive as that poor excuse for a priest was to Our Blessed Lord, the Church, the Priesthood and the Ministry of Preaching not to mention the poor hostages at his Mass and those poor idiot seminarians who believed him, been ordained and have been afflicting the faithful ever since with that vile BS.

          • What really irks me is the automatic canonizations at RC funerals (yours excepted, obviously). Our priest always mentions Purgatory and praying for the deceased. One man was a DP (displaced person). He came to the U.S. with his wife (they couldn’t have children) and left all his money in a trust for our parish. Every year was an annual donation from his trust fund. We were finally able to pay off our mortgage after 30+ years. He was a very quiet, shy person. My dad was one of his few friends.

        • And, of course you stood up and chastised him with a severe tone and refused when he told you to sit down.That’s the ticket.

          Reply
        • Well, that book sure was a page-turner! The only context that Dan Brown should ever be mentioned within those sacred walls is to serve as an example that EVEN THE LIKES OF DAN BROWN, ARGUABLY ONE OF SATAN’S MOST HIGHLY-DECORATED WARRIORS, SHOULD BE PRAYED FOR AND LOVED BY CHURCH MILITANT UNTIL WE CAN ALL HELP GOD RECLAIM HIS SOUL!

          otherwise, that priest should be questioned and interrupted… respectfully, yet with confidence and resolve.

          I look at my large, extended, French-Irish Catholic family, and I want to cry. 35 amazing people, all still recognize the beauty and love our family shares, but no longer understand the source of this blessing… every one has been blessed by the grace that can only come from generations of faithful Catholic ancestors showering us with prayer. Even the strong-willed Irish matriarch, now 88 years old, has fallen into the liberal malaise… she and my amazing mother talk about how they “worry” about me and believe that I scare my kids by speaking to them about hell and the devil…

          I am 1 out of 21 grandchildren who have the fear of God and meditate on the 4 last things.

          My grandma’s loving judgement of me was perhaps the greatest influence on my life as a child… I didn’t know much about God yet, but the possibility of disappointing her kept me out of many bad situations. In fact, precisely how God envisioned the comfort and love that comes from obedience of parent/grandparent and applied to God when we can begin to comprehend life outside of the family bubble.

          girlfriends/boyfriends were subjected to the whole family’s scrutiny, rightfully so, as we only dated in search of our worthy spouse… the family trip would be the final exam… and were not allowed even to stay in the same house… let alone the same floor or room… Half of us have now married, and only one other has married a fellow
          Catholic. I have 2 aunts and uncles who rightfully married in the
          Catholic Church, built beautiful, big, families… that have since divorced and
          remarried non-Catholic’s in a civil ceremony.

          My mom and Grandma can not
          tolerate my “judgement” when I simply said that they are still married
          to their first spouses… how could any Catholic possibly believe
          otherwise??

          Grandma? are you there? Mom? What happened to you in THE PAST15 YEARS? You’ve let go of all high standards that kept us all strong and protected?

          How am I to respond when I am asked if my brothers are married? Or what
          of their children? Both married outside the church, to non-Catholics, amazing women… They would both convert to Catholicism if asked and required by their husband, my brother… In 2005, my Grandma would not have shown up for my wedding had it not been a full Mass in a Catholic church… the past 5 cousins weddings, Friends offered their profound wisdom and none of the family and friends shared in a blessing for the couple. The Weddings for Dummies book and signing The City Marriage Certificate gets
          signed, and 5 minutes later everyone is drinking.

          I AM NOW THE ONLY ONE OUT OF 35 THAT DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT ANY OF THEM ARE MARRIED!!! SUCH A SIMPLE PRINCIPLE THAT I REMEMBER SEPARATING THE STATE UNION FROM THE MARRIAGE SACRAMENT AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER.

          I’ve never said so other than when asked directly about my brothers by mom Mom and Grandma. Clearly the same would apply to any one else.

          So much has melted away… How do I stand by and let my amazing family slip away? I blame a lot of things, but a specific church and revolving door masonic priests has become their norm. They had a fundraiser for a clinic that will perform abortions (not an abortion clinic, right?) on Friday, October 13, 2017!!! THE CENTENNIAL OF THE MIRACLE OF THE SUN!! they drank, danced and donated to that cause.

          How do we show love for a priest who preaches the word according to Dan Brown?
          How do we show love towards a priest who guides souls to Satan?
          I’d love to hear a good story of a bad priest’s conversion!!! Do they exist? Or are they simply too well guarded for a lousy sinner like me to make a difference?

          I asked a Novus Ordo priest about what he thought I should do… he said I should only focus on those for whom I am responsible. Sound advice?

          Green scapulars?
          Any other thoughts?

          Surely this landslide will come back the other way in time?

          Reply
      • This may explain All Hallows seminary closing last year.
        A.H. produced almost 5,000 priests in its 150 years of existence.
        The article below doesn’t mention the Vincentians.
        But I put the blame for its closing on Vatican ll not the Vincentians.
        http://www.ncregister.com/blog/guest-blogger/how-irelands-special-boot-camp-for-missionaries-changed-america-and-the-wor?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NationalCatholicRegisterBloggers+National+Catholic+Register+Bloggers#When:2018-01-17
        Maynooth is a conference centre or banquet hall. Maynooth was once the largest
        seminary in the world, housing 500 seminarians. The fact that these two seminaries are empty say something about Vatican ll. It didn’t work.

        Reply
        • By ignoring the reality of hell or fear of the Lord, Columban Fathers,
          St. Patrick Missionaries (Kiltegan Frs.), S.M.A. Fathers and Salesians are slowly disappearing along with many other religious orders.

          Reply
          • As I mentioned below, I want to see all the bishops discuss and evaluate the effects of Vatican II. There are many questions that need to be answered: what pastoral crisis needed to be answered by the convening of a council? why was there a shift of attitude towards the world and other religions? If the loss in vocations and spread of loss of faith being attributed to the council and it’s aftermath is too simplistic as some priests say, then what is it?
            Analogously, when your product does well, and after implementing some reforms, your product is experiencing a massive dip in sales, the obvious thing to do would be to evaluate was was done, not to double down on the reforms in self denial.

          • When I saw Francis giving the St. Gregory award to the SAFE ABORTION gal and then praising abortionist Ema Bonino,
            I said we’re living in chastisement.

          • We sure are. Our Holy Father is so anti-abortion as he says to the point that he pretends Pro-Life movements don’t exist and gives medals to pro-choice activists. May God help us.

          • Perhaps the pope can find some time to listen to Pres. Trump’s speech to 100,000 at Washington’s March for LIFE on Jan.22

          • Our sins are greater than those of Noah’s age. We’re not improving, so if an asteroid were to hit us, I would not be surprised…horrified and terrified but not surprised…

          • Definitely so, spiritually at least. Ever since 1960 when John XXIII refused to reveal the 3rd Secret. That is when spiritual chastisement started. Until then the modernists had been kept in check. After that, the deluge came.

          • “…what pastoral crisis needed to be answered by the convening of a council”

            That’s Item #1 on the list of Pope John XXIII mistakes.

          • I was a student in a Salesian Grammar school from 1965 -1970. The headmaster and another priest both left the priesthood to marry, preferring copulating to serving Christ. We were the first cohort to receive their sanitised indifferentist Vatican II-style catechesis, issued with a ‘bowdlerised’ Companion of Youth, the prayer book for Salesian Students devised by their founder Saint John Bosco. They could scarcely wait to get out of their soutanes and get into civvy clothing. They prided themselves as being an order at the cutting edge of progressivism and change. They generated one and a half vocations from my peers but the boy who was later ordained did not stay the course for very long.

          • I think I’ll borrow and slightly modify a line from your post to describe priests who have left or are leaving the priesthood to marry. My version will be “he preferred copulation to consecration.” It is a phrase worthy of Evelyn Waugh. Thank you.

        • Thanks for the link to the enthralling article on All Hallows seminary. Maynooth is now sometimes referred to as “Gaynooth” for the obvious reasons.

          Maynooth does survive on paper as a seminary, though, when the Archbishop of Dublin does not want to send his own few seminarians there, the writing is plainly on the wall. When you have 6 new seminarians starting their first year in a building designed for 500, the end cannot be far off.

          Some years ago, a Vatican visitation noted the fact that much of the huge empty structure was being used by the secular university and the background noise disrupted the peace essential for prayer and study at any serious seminary.

          https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/number-of-new-trainee-priests-at-maynooth-hits-record-low-1.3233625

          Reply
          • “Gaynooth” can go. It was a product of the English-language Church leaders at the end of the 18th century who made a covenant with Momma England, that the Church could openly operate (seriously relaxing the Penal Laws) and have a seminary on Irish soil (the French Revolution on the continent closed all the old Irish-speaking seminaries there) if the Church promoted English, cast off Irish, and the traditions and old-style customs of the Irish-speaking Church that nourished the Irish back to Patrick’s time.

            They made the deal.

            When the Blight came about 50 years afterward (1846-49|) the “Irish” Church wasn’t so “Irish” any more. Archbishop McHale of Connacht (lived almost 100 years, from 1789 to 1881) was a great nationalist and Irish-language speaker and promoter, but he was a stand-out exception. Once he was going to Dublin for some conference and the Dublin Archbishop sent word he’d have his priests meet McHale with pitchforks.

            Just a vignette to suggest how shallow and, really, honestly, pro-West Brit the Irish Church was in the 19th century. Only by the grace of God did it hold together as long as it did. The Faith won’t die in Ireland because it won’t die anywhere, but you’ll might have to go back to Masses in the fields for a generation or two. Ba’al and Moloch seem to rule Hibernia now.

            RC

      • I was a life long Protestant and I studied church history, doctrine, bible and cults. When I converted to the TLM church I began to debate protestants and because I knew all their talking points and now also knew the catholic perspective, I thought sometimes their heads would explode. The gospels are very clear about Jesus giving the authority and the keys to the kingdom to St. Peter. Protestants who always squawk about “sola scriptura” get very uneasy when we bring up scripture that proves us right.

        Reply
    • Yes, He loves them so much he calls each to be perfectly Holy as He is Triunely Perfectly Holy….this is what His Love does as it calls them to Love with His Love….if not, all the rest you mentioned Father!

      Reply
    • There are plenty of reasons to preach about judgement, repentance and contrition this coming Sunday, Fr. If you would care to swap any notes I am looking for inspiration at the moment! 😉

      Reply
    • There’s always a “kicker” and Modernists seem to NOT want the kicker. For example, the old saying, “Opposites attract” sounds “nice” and explains how certain couples got together, but the “kicker” is left off: “Opposites attract, and then they attack!”

      Same with the “God loves you just the way you are” saying. The second half is always left off: “God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way!”

      😀

      Reply
    • I’m temporarily living in a city with no TLM church until I can move back out west where I converted.. I visited the four Novus Ordo churches here and one was more liberal than the next. The last straw was a beautiful old little polish church where the priest didn’t even bother to lead us in reciting the nicene creed. It was just laziness. That’s a line I can’t cross. That creed is our statement of faith which most Christians have recited for 1800 years.

      Reply
    • I have heard priests ignore the hell and Sin gospels for years. There is no need to go to Church if you don’t think you are a sinner who requires salvation.

      Reply
    • Dear Fr RP, please say Three Aves for my parish priest. He is a very holy man. He doesn’t have any assistant or deacon, but still offers two Masses every day, morning and evening, hears Confessions 30 minutes before each Mass, and we have Perpetual Adoration chapel. And yet, he won’t talk about God’s Justice. All he talks is how God loves us and leaves the undeniable impression of universal salvation.

      And Father, you are in my daily prayers. Greetings from Western Australia

      Reply
  8. From the Lectionary for Mass RNAB Study Edition re “Difficult Texts” (emphasis mine): “#76 In readings for Sundays and solemnities,TEXTS THAT PRESENT REAL DIFFICULTIES ARE AVOIDED FOR PASTORAL REASONS. The difficulties may be objective, in that the texts themselves raise profound literary, critical, or exegetical problems; or the difficulties may lie, at least to a certain extent, in the ability of the faithful to understand the texts….”

    and re The Omission of Certain Verses: “#77…One reason for the decision is that otherwise some texts would have been UNDULY LONG. It would also have been necessary to omit completely certain readings of high spiritual value for the faithful because those readings include some verse that is PASTORALLY LESS USEFUL or that involves TRULY DIFFICULT QUESTIONS.”

    So there you have it. We’re stupid, and we can’t handle the truth. Or something like that. And by the way, powerhouses verses against sexual sin are removed as well, like Romans 1:26-27 which is read once, on a weekday, every 2 years; Genesis 19 (Destruction of Sodom) is never read; Leviticus 18 is never read; Leviticus 20:13 is never read; 1Tim 9-11 is never read; 1Cor 6:15’b’-16 skipped right over; and Rev 22:15 (Lectionary ends Rev:22:1-7).

    So much for reading ‘the whole Bible in 3 years if you go to daily mass’!

    This may be the main reason I go to the Latin Mass. The fact that 1 Cor 11:27-29 is actually read on Holy Thursday is reason enough for me.

    Reply
      • 1 Tim 1:9-11
        9

        with the understanding that law is meant not for a righteous person but for the lawless and unruly, the godless and sinful, the unholy and profane, those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers,

        10

        the unchaste, sodomites,* kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching,h

        11

        according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.i

        Reply
    • Yes, I am forced to bring those, and many other scriptural citations, into my homilies on a regular basis to illustrate points I want to make that are pertinent to the Scriptures that are present and the crisis of faith and morality that we face while dying in our bleak society.

      It would certainly be helpful if they were actually part of the Readings for Holy Mass.

      Reply
      • you wouldn’t happen to post your homilies online would you? Interested in reading more of your “official” words – interest gained from reading your opinions here.

        Reply
    • Good points! There is none of the PC (Pastoral Concoctions) fluff in the TLM, which is why I also stopped attending the Novus Ordo masses 4 years ago.

      Reply
  9. Too many Bishop Barons running loose in Cal . USA and Bergoglio Francis wayward papacy. Everyone goes to heaven apostasies.. .. They Never remember Jesus telling woman he saved from.stoning death for Active adultery to SIN NO more. . That and though shalt NOT is list on all of the rump cino scarcely Roman or Catholic clergy or alleged bishops ..

    Reply
  10. The abolition of Hell has been discussed on OnePeterFive before, noticeably in regard to Sandro Magister’s excellent article on Pope Francis’ attitude to the Four Last Things. Or at least, the old fashioned and obsolete Four Last Things, as opposed to Francis’ version – Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and Mercy.

    https://onepeterfive.wpengine.com/worlds-end-update-last-things-according-francis/

    Plainly, even I can’t blame everything on PF. Professor Kwasniewski’s thoughtful article shows how 50 years of the NO Mass has softened us up and provided the perfect environment for preaching endless Mercy. He also points out the importance of the 1 year cycle of readings as opposed to the 3 years cycle since VAT2. I was far more familiar with the scripture readings in a one year cycle, despite the fatuous assurance in one Vatican document that the 3 year menu would make the laity familiar with a wider range of Scripture.

    As I pointed out repeatedly in various places, abolishing Hell (or assuring us that only the really bad guys like A Hitler go there) leads immediately to the irrelevance of the Church. Why should anyone get out of bed for such a religion? PF and his crony Cardinals will be the last generation to enjoy their well padded lifestyle. The only justification for the survival of the Church would be as a secular curator of the stunning buildings, art works and priceless libraries, like the National Trust in England. There are more than enough investments to sustain it. This historic society might also promote performances of our peerless musical heritage – though, obviously, any choral recital of the Dies Irae would have to be prefaced with lavish trigger warnings and a detailed explanation of how unmerciful it was.

    Reply
  11. For those of us who attend the Novus Ordo Mass thanks for the good reminder of hell.

    The Novus Ordo Mass is a child of the infamous Vatican II Council which has been a catastrophe for the Church and should be abrogated in it’s entirety. I believe Vatican II was an inspiration of the devil in punishment for Pope John XXIII’s failure of obedience to reveal the Third Secret of Fatima which was commanded to be done in 1960. Why God would allow such devastation is a mystery.

    Reply
  12. Great article!! Growing up in the NO, I never knew any of this. Not having a TLM near me, I attend a Byzantine Catholic Church a few times a month. As I think about it I have noticed they mention hell, the fear of the Lord and beg for mercy a lot. Although I understand that it has been waterd down since Vatican II.

    Reply
    • I’m glad you looked things up for yourself. I guarantee you that at least 7 out of 10 millennials had not even heard of the TLM. In the parish I grew up in, for the first 20 years of my life I was led to believe that the NO as we know it was THE mass that went back to the early church. And those who were old enough to experience the TLM had nothing but disdain and animosity for it.

      Reply
  13. The half-truth method, whereby the difficult parts of Catholic teaching are omitted, is definitely a favorite tool of modernists like Francis. All the talk of mercy but omitting the requirement for repentance, for example.

    Reply
  14. The NABRE Bible translation has entirely excised the word “hell” from the text, and the footnotes often argue against interpreting the words they do use as referring to a place of eternal punishment.

    Reply
    • Indeed! If you go on the internet Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=hell&qs_version=NABRE – and chose NABRE, and put word “hell” into search field, you’ll get only 5 words as hellenistic and similar.
      But no one single word “hell”!
      And if you chose the Douay-Rheims (DRA) version, and type “hell”, you’ll get 115 times word “hell”, where a few words here too are others as a personal name Helles from the book of Chronicles. – https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=hell&qs_version=DRA

      Mind, NABRE as all other translations and/or versions of the Catholic Bible, which are edited and published in the second half of last century and onwards, – are “slightly” adapted! Those adaptation/changes are worse than just bad! And they are of course different from one to another edition. I am talking here not just about English “edited” versions of the Bible.
      All those ‘modern’ versions have something common, they’ve used so-called neo-vulgate as basic and NOT the real official VULGATE version of the Bible which is translated and written in Latin by St. Jeronim, checked by St. Augustin and Church Fathers, – which is the only official Bible of the Catholic Church. Permission for using neo-vulgate was given by JPII.

      [This] sacred and holy Synod—considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic—ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition, which, by the lengthened usage of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever [Decree Concerning the Edition and Use of the Sacred Books, 1546]. – Trent’s Statement

      Or: [This Synod] ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition . . . be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic.
      “Authentic” in this context means “authoritative.” So Trent is saying that, of the Latin editions available in its day, the old Vulgate was to be considered the authoritative edition for use in lectures, debates, sermons, and expositions.

      JPII dealt with it in a 1979 apostolic constitution known as Scripturarum Thesaurus which is the document that promulgated a new, revised edition of the Vulgate—known as the Nova Vulgata, Neo-Vulgate, or New Vulgate.

      Just go and check BIG (CRUCIAL) DIFFERENCES in the neo-vulgate version of NABRE (and many others!), and real Vulgate version of DRA in the book of Judith, chapter 13. Or book of Tobit chapters 6 and 8.

      Reply
  15. Thank you for this. I’ve been trying to teach my children Lex Orandi; lex Credendi but I bumble over my words and butcher my meaning. This gives me a good religion class today!

    Reply
  16. A few years ago in our archdiocese the rector looking out over the vast empty spaces of his cathedral church spoke complacently and cheerfully of how gloomy the liturgy was before Vatican II. If it weren’t so tragic, this observation would be hilarious.

    Yes, that was when the place would have been jammed every Sunday morning. But with the elimination of Hell, who needs a savior? Who needs Confession? For that matter, who needs to avoid near occasions of sin?

    Reply
    • Yes, that poor civily married (aka fornicating couple) were so lost that after 8 years they still could not find another Church to be married in because the one they ‘planned’ on being married in was destroyed by an earth quake. How about marriage prep, how about repentance for 8 years of fornication?

      What about Holy Places for Holy Things and Holy Things for Holy People?

      This was a PR stunt period. So, good mainstream media secular press is of greater importance to Pope Francis than the Sacrament of Matrimony.

      Reply
  17. As Fr RP laments most sermons seek to convince ad nauseam that God loves us perhaps with addition of a cute little anecdote [often felt puke bags should be available in their pews]. Added to Prof Peter Kwasniewski’s Liturgical doctrinal evidence of the reality of Hell is the rationale underlying the heresy of denial. Benedict XVI in his recent Last Words referenced the irrational amplifying of a truth. That salvation is available outside the Church [cited 1201 by Innocent III in instruction to Archbishop of Arles that non baptized are not condemned to Hell rather are denied Beatific Vision. Only those who commit serious sin and refuse repentance are condemned]. Vat II the aftermath and the nefarious ‘Spirit of Vat II’ accelerated the current damage to the faith previously in process according to Benedict. He added that false inflation of a truth as reason for the diminishing missionary activity of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis’ Situation Ethics premise that “concrete circumstances” remove culpability from intrinsic evil acts is the final catalyst. Regular Sunday Mass attendance, confessions dropped significantly from approx 75% to today’s 30% mostly elderly and down spiraling. An Apostasy. If there is no Hell Why bother if salvation is available to everyone without much effort. Without the Cross.

    Reply
    • IS it wrong to hope that pope Benedict outlives the reign of pope Francis. No matter how it ends? It might be the one thing stopping pope Francis from revoking summorium pontifical.

      Reply
      • Another comment on your question refers to the unlikely possibility of the aged Benedict XVI emerging from retirement and advocating the truth on the issues we’re concerned with. That would take a miracle of sorts, a miracle I would welcome. We’ve gone so far down the road of ambiguity and implementation of Pope Francis’ “new paradigm” that the canonical issue of the papacy is less relevant than the need for someone with stature to oppose Pope Francis.

        Reply
          • I’ve had mixed feelings on this Rod. Benedict has supported Pope Francis saying in Last Words that we simply have a new Pontiff with a different perspective to meet the world’s challenges, words to that effect. Then elsewhere he betrays a nuance of discontent. My hope is he’ll oppose Pope Francis.

    • The policy of ecumenism.is being applied to Catholics within the Church.which is supposed to be the very place where Christ’s truth.is known and loved. But in fact there are so.few Catholics within the Catholic Church. Its a babel. The situation is a result of official policy to NOT prevent error from circulating. It was either naive and pure sentimentality or it was a deliberate policy to reduce the whole idea of truth to.just one of many opinions.

      Reply
      • Yes it is a Babel of confusion, heresy, misunderstanding that’s developed for years preceding Vat II largely the fault of clergy unwilling to teach the hard truth. Hell isn’t a pleasant reality but nonetheless a reality taught by Christ clearly and consistently. Our difficulty is associating eternal suffering with an infinitely good God. The dilemma for those on the road to perdition is free will which God respects. If we choose evil we receive evil as our reward. The other is His infinite goodness sin absolutely opposed to God. The further we drift away from God the further our understanding misapprehends the absolute polarity of sin and divine goodness, between good and evil.

        Reply
        • Father, I think to get a good mental grasp of good and evil necessitates giving people some theological explanation but simply. If a person is not religious, they will never ‘get it’. Thanks for highlighting the further we drift away from God, by our own choices, the more we wont get the chasm between good and evil. Of course, when we see someone whose life is spinning out of control, we either ascribe it to their poor parenting or evil. That’s been another blind alley we’ve been induced to go down : always viewing people’s predicaments through a psychological lens as if the “right parenting” is a guarantee to have good, mature and holy children. NOT!

          Reply
    • ….”irrational amplifying of a truth”

      Been looking for a term for it!!!

      Thanks!

      Yes, “invincible ignorance” now means that “all are saved”.

      Benedict is most troubling to me. I’ve posted his dubious positions on EENS before, and going back to the 1958 lecture he has indicated that it is our “humanity” that prevents us from believing that non-Catholics go to hell and that good people who are moral and whatnot still need the Church. The religion of “nice” before Vatican 2.

      As bad as Bergoglio is {remember, I do not have the experience of what came before} Ratzinger is more deeply troubling to me in many ways. For that matter, so is every Pope since Vatican 2. And that is simply based on my reading of documents pre- and post V2 and of their actions. I am not certain I would have converted during the pontificate of JPII. How do I know? Because I didn’t! As far as I could see as a theologically-trained Protestant, he was just a universalist and a religious indifferentist and reinforced my general perception that the Catholic Church stood for nothing doctrinally, would fight for nothing except the advancement of Democrat politics in the USA and held that all were going to heaven except maybe some who really really begged not to and even they were probably “in”. Where did I get that from? I never really studied the man as I considered Catholicism to be a joke.

      Which to be honest, looking at the religious culture of Catholic bishops, it appears to be.

      Bergoglio is a mere logical end to the culture of the papacy since V2. I’d say it is impossible to be otherwise. I am more at peace with him than with Benedict and John Paul, both of whom I somehow feel “should have known better”.

      Reply
      • Assume “more at peace with Bergoglio” means you know what you are getting with him although he still shocks. Someone should tell him the Keys are to bind and to loose. He seems to be stuck on loosening. Fear of the Lord is the Spirit’s first gift, the beginning of Wisdom yet God’s requirement of being God-fearing has been overlooked for decades. The Church was said to be too harsh before V2 – you hear this from many older people with gripes. Catholics need to be evangelised into being God-fearing people. I would hate to think the number of Gentiles who were to be grafted onto the Jewish root, is at an end. The Holy Spirit stopped St.Paul from entering Asia. Perhaps Asia’s time has arrived to receive the true Faith, but if so – where are the Missionaries ?

        Reply
  18. BUT… in the course of three years of Sunday gospels, Hell is mentioned more often in the Pauline Missal than in the Tridentine. So reported the sympathetic-to-the-older-liturgy theologian Monsignor McCarthy (or was it Fr Brian Harrison).

    Reply
  19. What, I ask myself, is the very least we can now ask of the rank and file priesthood, for them to demonstrate to faithful Catholic laity in a practical manner that have done with doctrinal compromise and the routine profanation of the Blessed Sacrament?
    I think the bare minimum is that they must decide and declare to their congregations, that they will no longer offer Holy Communion in the hand and that any communicant at their Masses must only receive communion on the tongue.

    Reply
    • YES!! Communion in the hand is a sacrilege. That reform alone will change the current course of the Barque of Peter.

      For all you priests reading this, don’t even think about it; just do it.

      Reply
      • How do we know there is a hell and a just God, unless we KNOW His Sacrifice for that one mere hour……and to know the Mystery of the faith which is the Eucharist?

        Can one imagine if only these f steps were implemented at every single Mass:

        1.) Ad Orientum
        2.). Altar/ not table
        3.) Communion at altar rail on tongue/ and no Eucharistic Ministers
        4.) St. Michael prayer with priest leading prayer after Mass
        5.). Do away with ” handshake, hugs, cheeriors!” to each other
        6). Do away with lay people processing to bring gifts to priest.
        7.) Have certain parts of Liturgy in Latin
        8.). Sacred Music only
        9.). And homilies that reflect the fullness of the Gospel/. No deletes or skirmishness to satisfy the world. Our Lord’s wishes are to be made known.
        10.). And of course the bulletin announcements should NEVER be read after Communion. We CAN READ. Time to relfect, pray upon what we just received.
        11.) Silence before and after Mass. I believe these very modern church buildings have huge spaces for gatherings outside of the naive.

        Reply
        • This describes Holy Rosary parish in Portland, Oregon perfectly . . .with the exception that we have the Rosary before the noon Mass, and, in addition, Confessions from 11-12 every day, and 6 hours of adoration after Mass, plus the Leonine prayers in toto.

          Reply
          • Wonderful. This is a Domincan Order parish I recall?

            The Dominican Order is a beautiful order, I am familiar only slightly. with the Eastern Province however, which is very Thomastic and very solid.

    • Weakened and scattered, yes. Disarmed and disbanded, NEVER!
      It’s a Spiritual War and remember, WE WON! That IS, The Communion Of Saint’s.

      Reply
      • To the extent that we fight on, it is as an irregular militia, lacking formal command structure. Perhaps social media can be used for communication and coordination of the scattered bands of brothers (and sisters). It would be a war conducted from below rather than from the top down.

        Somewhere around I have the writings of Mao and General Giap; they could provide some tactical guidance.

        Reply
  20. I attended a funeral, NO with a diocesan priest, who used EP II. He “canonized” immediately not only the current deceased, but also his recently deceased wife, daughter and granddaughter who all died in separate years. “Saint Eugene joins now in heaven Saint Eleanor, Saint Joyce and Saint Mariah.” Saints Preserve Us! There was no mention of any sin or reparation of sin for any of them; I attended 3 of the 4 Funeral Masses and listened for them.

    Reply
    • This is an entirely logical development from

      1) Pope John Paul 2 (now himself a Saint!) abolishing the office of the Promoter of the Faith and thus clearing the way for canonisation of people at an unprecedented rate

      and

      2) the numerous weird proclamations from Pope Francis described in Sandro Magister’s disturbing article, reproduced on OnePeterFive and several other websites. Look at these two examples, from 23rd Aug 2017 and 11 Oct 2017, which Sandro quotes:

      “At another general audience a few months ago, on Wednesday, August 23, Francis gave for the end of history an image that is entirely and only comforting: that of “an immense tent, where God will welcome all mankind so as to dwell with them definitively.””

      “There is in his preaching, however, something that tends toward a practical overshadowing of the final judgment and of the opposite destinies of blessed and damned.

      On Wednesday, October 11, at the general audience in Saint Peter’s Square, Francis said that such a judgment is not to be feared, because “at the end of our history there is the merciful Jesus,” and therefore “everything will be saved. Everything.”

      In the text distributed to the journalists accredited to the Holy See, this last word, “everything,” was emphasized in boldface.”

      https://onepeterfive.wpengine.com/worlds-end-update-last-things-according-francis/

      Does “everything” include every human soul? If not, what on earth is PF talking about? If every human soul is saved, then your priest was entirely correct in canonising everyone.

      Reply
      • These erroneous pronouncements about people who dont go to Heaven being annihilated or coming into a big tent make evangelising so difficult and we are always hoping that no.one is following papal.homilies these days for this reason.

        Reply
        • That’s one massive problem. There were probably thousands of people from all over the world at these audiences who could not help but hear PF’s “teaching”, even if they (hopefully!!) ignored it or could not understand it. Plus the fact that the texts of these audiences are out on the Vatican Web site and are publicised to the media.

          Reply
      • DISCLAIMER: Private Revelation follows.
        At the moment of death, each person is presented with the accumulation of their life experiences, their choices and the alternatives which would have led them closer to God. If the soul repents of the earthly choice and chooses the Righteous alternative, Jesus and Mary apply Mercy and Grace, respectively, for the soul’s purgation. If the soul chooses the same disobedient route as it chose when it had a body, Judgment descends with the weight of all the consequences of that choice. Rarely are we, the friends and family left behind, allowed to know the results of this Trial.

        Rarely, because the saints have told us of messages of the deceased, prayers requested or blessings granted. In this respect, to despair upon ever receiving the Forgiveness of God is as much a sin against the Holy Spirit as the folly of an all-encompassing rapture. Both are extremes which deny either Judgment or Mercy.

        I suspect that PF sins against the Holy Spirit in his denials of sin, repentance and judgment. Pray for him.

        Reply
  21. First, it would be good if you set the article off with quotation marks.

    Second: This woman is an idiot and a heretic and I sincerely hope and pray that she repents so that she does not have to experience Hell.

    Reply
  22. Our Lord Himself in recorded scripture mentions Hell many times and for any Layperson
    or Cleric to diminish this reality is a grave, grave error.

    Reply
    • Not so fast.

      Your position here embodies a sense of truth but it is the first step that leads tot the slippery slope:

      Revelation 20:15 – And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

      Matthew 10:28 – And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

      Matthew 25:46 – And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

      Reply
    • Internal Church politics at work, perhaps. How serious IS the power struggle within
      the Church if it’s image to the world is to be tarnished with THIS “carelessness”

      Reply
  23. A local NO deacon presiding over the Rosary for his dead father in law told a joke about the Rosary and then the priest the family brought in PRAYED IN THE NAME OF THE DEAD GUY.

    I’m not kidding when I tell you I have days when it is really hard to be a convert…

    Reply
    • So many priests have lost their sense of the priesthood, and I imagine it is only fitting that many deacons would as well.
      Why do they think it is ” they” who charge hearts, provide graces?
      Why do they think they have to ” be one of us” ?
      One thing, if I may suggest for priests: please do not allow your parishioners to call you Father Joe, or Father Bill .
      It so diminishes the priesthood, their own credibility, and respect.

      About four months ago, I was relegated to attend my former NO parish for Mass: the altar boy had rainbow colored hair.
      And I kid you not.
      The good Lord must have glued my mouth, and body to the pew…………

      Reply
      • Until you mentioned it, I haven’t given it much thought as to how we address our parish priests. As a child it was always Father Lastname. Since coming back to the church its been Father Firstname, which I now realize is a very Protestant thing. Though with Bishops its remains Bishop Lastname.

        Reply
  24. This article is so timely. A recent conversation with a senior coworker with great influence in a Catholic institution revealed this same lack of understanding of the Eurcharistic Sacrament. I was saddened but not surprised.

    Reply
  25. When I first attended the Latin Mass, somewhat more than 10 years ago, it was partly out of curiosity and partly out of looking for something other than what I was experiencing in my N.O. parish, where I was dissatisfied. The first Mass, which was very confusing to me, I heard the pastor give a sermon on Hell and the need for confession and repentance. I never heard that from the pulpit in all of my Catholic life, being born a few years after the change to the N.O. That’s why I stayed, and will stay. That’s also what I tell people who want to accuse me of being hung up on mere aesthetics.

    Reply
    • My wife and I converted one month after Bergoglio was elected. We rarely go to NO Mass anymore, as we have a wonderful FSSP parish we have registered with.

      On a number of occasions after leaving a NO Mass since our move to the TLM, she says…”Rod, it’s like a different religion”.

      And it ain’t about the Latin.

      Reply
      • I agree with your wife. It’s a reality check. And I’m also with you on the Latin. It’s only one dimension and by no means the most significant. What the Latin does do though, amongst other things, is ‘lock in’ the doctrine. It was a safeguard. No surprise that as the languages changed the doctrine has unravelled…

        Reply
  26. Exactly the point I have made elsewhere on OnePeterfive and other websites. If the Church is not about Salvation, its only possible functions are as a historical curator of all the wonderful buildings, libraries and art treasures, plus a general benevolent society with any leftover investment income. The Cardinals and other clergy need not worry – there is enough cash around to keep them for the rest of their redundant lives.

    Reply
    • If the Church is not about salvation…..well.in lots of places it is not because to speak that way does not sound ‘inclusive’ sounds as if the Church knows something ordinary people do not. That kind of talk was disowned decades ago in most Catholic parishes in this country. Today we must look for the Church and embed ourselves there.

      Reply
  27. 1. There are two references to plucking out an eye to avoid Hell in the gospel of Matthew, one in chapter 18 and the other at Matthew 5. That passage, Mt 5:27-32 is found every year on Friday, of the Tenth Week Per Annum.

    27You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. 28But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell. 30And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell‎ 31And it hath been said, Whoseoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. 32But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.‎

    The parallel passage in St. Mark (9:41-50) is found on Thursday of the Seventh Week of “Ordinary Time” every year.

    As for Sundays, the reference to entering Hell with two eyes of Matthew 5 occurs, unfortunately but still, in the longer version for Sunday Six of Year A, so it could be omitted.

    The parallel passage of St. Mark is found at the 29th Sunday of Year B. No shorter version. It must be read.

    So the particular reference to avoiding Hell at all costs, even by plucking out an eye, occurs twice during the weekdays every year, and one or two times out of three years on a Sunday.

    But there are other references to Hell on Novus Ordo Sundays.‎

    Reply
  28. My old priest at my TLM church often preached on hell. I love how he would refer to it, in his strong Austrian accent, as “infernum” and he would open and close his hands in a way that clearly made you think of flames. He certainly got the point across and yet he was one of the sweetest men and the best priest I’ve ever known. We need to be reminded of hell once in a while. Maybe not to the point that the calvinists do, but pie in the sky homilies are a waste of time. We need reality.

    Reply
  29. May I tell you a story, and please do not insult me. It is not my intention to offend. I promise you this is a true story. I will not reveal any names or places for obvious reasons. This is the story of Franco who arrived in the US as an immigrant agnostic from a country in Europe. He was formed in philosophy and literature. Franco married a non believer in the US, the marriage ended after 10 yrs. did not produce any children. At age 42, recently divorced, Franco – who never had more than a passing curiosity for religion – had an encounter with God. How that was, I was not told, only that it was brief and left Franco with the complete conviction that there was a God and something beyond this life. He never told anyone about this miracle for a long time but he started reading about religion. After a few years he began watching EWTN, mostly Mother Angelica and Fr. Corapi. He watched Fr Corapi’s whole series on the Catechism several dozen times. At one point he was convinced that the truth about God, Christ, and eternal life was in the Catholic Church. He began reading everything he could find in the Internet and began to amass a serious Catholic library. Being a person of a meticulous nature, he read the Fathers of the Church from A to Z and got acquainted specially with St Augustine and St Thomas. From his EWTN times he attended Mass, as many times per week as his schedule permitted. He visited the same church for several years. No one ever asked him who he was or why he never took Holy Communion. He approached a priest who told him to keep coming to Mass but nothing else. Eventually another priest told him about Catechism for Adults and directed him to the office (weekdays, of course) His job demanded some travelling so he never had the time to register for a whole RCIA. Franco did not know that he was a fully catechized Catholic. Being a reserved and rather shy person, he simply minded his own business and wondered how he was going to arrange things to attend RCIA. In time he had a chance encounter with someone who was a friend of a RC priest in a nearby town. He was introduced to Fr Gordon a French Canadian man with a great evangelizing spirit. Fr. Gordon had several long conversations with Franco and decided that he was very well sel-catechized. He presented the case to his Bishop who agreed to have Franco received in the Church. Ten years after his encounter with God Franco received Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion all the same day. He was very happy. Someone asked him to write his conversion story for a magazine and he did. That was the beginning of many troubles. He told his personal story sincerely and that impressed many people and moved at least one person to conversion. Soon he was contacted by a man who wanted to meet him. Franco detected a few things in this man’s manners that made him uncomfortable and he decided to politely decline the offer. Soon that man — who was a member of the local homophile group — began to defame Franco although few people actually knew Franco at all. Coincidentally, Franco lost his job about that time. It was very difficult for him to find a new job but he finally landed a position in a different city. Once there and many years after rejecting the apparent advances of that homosexual/mystic on the phone, all kinds of notes and news defaming Franco continued to appear online. Eventually Franco was laid off and was never able to find work in his profession again. He currently attends a church, he has been going there for about 6 yrs. until last Sunday he has never been approached by anyone. He frequents the confessional, receives Holy Communion and leaves. He is fine with the way things turned out but he wonders why a simple polite refusal to meet with an obvious deviant should be the reason to have his life destroyed. His entering the Catholic Church destroyed his social and professional life. To this day he does not know who was the man who was so interested in meeting him — Franco is a very good looking man, by the way — I listened to his story and I remembered the story of Brendan, a good looking Irish priest who left the Church after being chased after by two bishops who fell in love with him and then attempted to destroy him when Brendan rejected their advances. Brendan left the priesthood — he simply walked away — he got married and now attends Anglican services, Franco would not do that, but he is very careful to keep his privacy and not to make any contact with anyone at church. This is the Church today. Who am I to judge? — Lord Jesus please come soon.

    Reply
  30. Denying the existence of hell doesn’t prevent one from being sent there
    – Ostrich with head in the sand
    Refusing to talk/preach about hell will ensure oneself and others ending up there
    – Collaborator of the Church of the Nice
    Admitting the existence of hell will help one from ending up there
    – Enjoy the Beatific Vision forever.

    “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins; save us from the fires of Hell
    Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy”

    If at Fatima, Our Lady herself taught the three children this ^ prayer,
    after they were given a glimpse of hell into which souls were falling like autumn leaves
    what further proof do we need of the existence of hell ?

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Popular on OnePeterFive

Share to...