20 September 2017

Grumps

There is a great deal to be joyful about; in fact, I feel on something of an emotional high. These are exhilarating times to be a "traditional" Latin Catholic! And not least of the sources of joy is the sense of panic in "Liberal" quarters: almost hysterical panic that, although in this pontificate they have their hands on all the central levers of power in the Church, they seem to be making so little headway in stifling the Gospel and the Tradition.

I say that so as to put some grumps into perspective.

Grump (1) I hope you have read, on LifeSiteNews, the account by Diane Montagna of what has just been done to the S John Paul Institute for the Family.

Diane is a remarkable young journalist; at the Vatican News Conference when the Graf von Schoenborn "presented" Amoris laetitia, she asked the one, real, important question. The Graf proceeded, with that ready smile which some odd people find so winsome, condescendingly to put her down by a misrepresentation of the teaching of Blessed John Henry Newman.

Her piece on LifeSiteNews is a deft and penetrating analysis of this latest attack on the Magisterium of S John Paul.

Grump (2) Fr Zed reveals the aggression perpetrated against the SSPX when they went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of our Blessed Lady at Knock; the use of security men to prevent the SSPX group from offering the Holy Sacrifice or saying the Rosary within the Shrine precincts.

The fact that the Society has been allowed to pray in Roman basilicas, and in the Concrete Submarine at Lourdes [see a lovely video of the pontifical High Mass celebrated there by His Excellency Bishop Fellay, which I access by googling Fr Ray Blake SSPX Lourdes], makes this illiberal act stand out like a sore etc.etc..

Questions are in order. (a) Was a pretext offered? Ex. Gr. "You haven't booked in and another group is booked in to use the same facilities at precisely the same moment." Even if there was a technical pretext, one doubts whether a group, say, of Orthodox or Anglicans would have had detachments of security men let loose on them.
(b) Was the diocesan bishop involved in this debacle?

When I was at Knock, I was pleasantly surprised by how very friendly the staff were in enabling me to say Mass (EF) at the Altar of the Vision. One brother priest to whom I said this remarked "I can only tell you that you were remarkably lucky". Could it be that the fact I was in company with Cardinal Pell influenced people?

Not a grump at all but just a question (3): NLM has an interesting primer on how to Enrich the Novus Ordo. Among much else, it suggests wiping thumbs, forefingers three times on the Corporal at the start of the Qui pridie. Three times is not what I was taught at England's most prestigious Seminary, Staggers (1967), in our Mass Practices, nor can I find it in O'Connell. Do I now need, in advanced old age, to triple the habit of a lifetime?

11 comments:

Michael Leahy said...

Regarding the incident at Knock, I can only say, as an Irishman living here for all of my fifty-six years, that this country (or at least the Republican part of it) has transformed itself into what seems the most blindly and unquestioningly liberal one on the planet. I think we were the first to actually vote in same-sex 'marriage' and I fear that is only the beginning. What passes as 'official Ireland', and I would include the aforementioned security-men and their directors in this, has apparently wholly embraced the madness although there are probably quite a large number of shell-shocked individuals like myself wandering around trying to understand what has happened.

Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque said...

...Magisterium of S John Paul...

Is it right to personalise Catholic Tradition in this way?

Capreolus said...

Reverend Sir,
I had never heard of the three-fold finger "wipe" before reading that article, either. Once or twice was the prescription, I believe, laid down by Fr. Callewaert. Perhaps it's in the same class of symbol-enriched practices as taking three draughts to drain the chalice.
Cordially,

John Vasc said...

Without disagreeing at all with what Michael L has said, I really think we should find another word for the ubiquitous 'liberal' to describe the agressive intolerance of moral values that passes as 'liberal' these days. It cannot qualify as being liberal in any of the dictionary senses, as it is not only insouciantly totalitarian but also ungenerous to a fault - except to those objects of compassion who are, alas, always somewhere else.

Prayerful said...

@Michael Leahy, I have only thirty something years, but I have a little more optimism. Most professionally published Irish broadcast, print and web media are controlled or cowed by the litigious Denis O'Brien, and the rest is under a complacently leftist political and media class. Neither have an interest in the Faith, except to occasionally sneer or roll out their pet pantheist priest Tony Flannery, yet people still go in great numbers to standard NOM, and now most can hear a TLM within an hour of driving or better. Vastly more attended the March for Life than 'Pro Choice' marches, even if Official Ireland completely ignored or distorted. The only hostility I saw was from the Chuck Feeney paid counter protestors, and some unhealthy looking old man driving an MX-5, which made me laugh hard while he ranted some nonsense about traffic. If he walked, he might have longer to fix his life and health. Catholics have to work to rebuild what was casually discarded, and great strides have been made.

Liam Ronan said...

Dear Father Hunwicke,

Greetings from a resident of the Land of Saints and Sociologists (once known as Ireland) and which land touts as the Preamble to its Constitution:

"In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, We, the people of Éire..."

It is now almost certain that in 2018 'the people of Éire' will have placed before them a proposed change to the 8th Amendment of the Constitution which will permit abortions to be conducted in Éire. Abhorrent as abortion is in the sight of the Most Holy Trinity, the very thought of contemplating such a change, i.e. endorsing a sin which cries out to God for vengeance, is yet another bald-faced governmental affront to the Most Holy Trinity hard on the heels of the electorate's 2015 approval of same-sex 'marriage'.

Better that the Nation should perish than one innocent die. (ref. John 11:50)

Without so much as a bat's squeak of 'Irish' press cover one man, Tim Jackson of the County Donegal, has begun a hunger strike to prevent the approval of abortion via this blasphemous Constitutional referendum. I think his cause, and the cause all of our unborn Irish little ones, needs much wider coverage throughout the world. Here is a link (below) to the man's present endeavor.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/watch-donegal-man-starts-hunger-strike-on-abortion-issue-outside-dail-806405.html

Unknown said...

I am a hair's breadth from walking away from the Church and becoming Jewish. I am convinced the sons of hell are in charge. Having the enemy in charge of all the levers of power and intent on destroying the faith has robbed me of all the joy and pride and security I had in my Catholicism. I now question its very truth.

Fr John Hunwicke said...

Imperfectly, I have served my Lord for more than six decades and I cannot forsake him now. He died for me and my sins, and I cannot desert Him now to walk away into the shadows and darkness of Judaism. He assures me that He has overcome the world, and He sent His Mother a century ago to remind us of His victory by assuring us that her Immaculate Heart will prevail.

At a prosaic, worldly, political level, I do beg readers to resist the assaults of the devil; to remind themselves that stuff is happening, things are being done ... why, this coming Sunday ...

Albrecht von Brandenburg said...

Nicholas Mitchell,

If you think the sons of hell are in charge of the church, just wait until you've read various passages from the Babylonian Talmud. You won't come away an admirer of post-temple "Judaism".

Liam Ronan said...

"Et signum magnum apparuit in cælo: mulier amicta sole, et luna sub pedibus ejus, et in capite ejus corona stellarum duodecim...

Et factum est prælium magnum in cælo: Michaël et angeli ejus præliabantur cum dracone, et draco pugnabat, et angeli ejus: 8 et non valuerunt, neque locus inventus est eorum amplius in cælo...

Propterea lætamini cæli, et qui habitatis in eis. Væ terræ, et mari, quia descendit diabolus ad vos habens iram magnam, sciens quod modicum tempus habet...

Et stetit supra arenam maris." John 12:1,7, 12, 18

"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4:17

Liam Ronan said...

Apologies for the incomplete attribution of the Latin scriptural passage. Ought read Apocalypse of St. John