Most people know that Governor Abbott of Texas has done away with the draconian restrictions in his state, including those laid upon places of worship. One would think that decent bishops down there would be rejoicing at the prospect of once again resuming normalcy in their dioceses and would be making provisions to restore unfettered administration of the Sacraments to their congregations. It would appear that most of them aren't decent. Only one of them, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, is restoring normal Catholic life in his diocese. All the others are still continuing to curtail the administration of Sacraments to their congregations, even though they are no longer under governmental compunction to do so.
The same scenario now plays itself out in Maryland. Governor Hogan has relaxed many of the restrictions here. Houses of worship are being permitted to admit greater numbers in their buildings for worship and Sacraments. However, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has announced that they will maintain the same draconian restrictions; again, they do this of their own volition. As for the Archdiocese of Washington, I am aware that both Montgomery and Prince George's counties will still maintain their strangleholds on public gatherings, but I don't know about Charles and Calvert counties. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Cardinal Gregory still denied the sacraments to the faithful, for he beat both the MD and DC governments to the punch in shuttering the churches.
Below I'm posting a podcast of Michael Hichborn's that was just broadcast. In it was discussed the situation at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. All private Masses have been halted in the main part of the Church and the Traditional Latin Mass has been all but banned from that locale. I believe there is an effort underway to deprive the faithful of authentic Masses and other sacraments. In doing so, the perpetrators seek to dry up channels of grace needed for souls and civilizations to survive in this world. We knew persecution was imminent, but how could we ever have dreamed that the persecution would come primarily through errant bishops and yes, an errant pope, who are playing the wolves in shepherds' clothing? Those who try to curtail access to the Sacraments out of fear of a germ are either completely destitute of Catholic faith and/or actually conniving to remove sacramental grace from our lives and the world.
This doesn't surprise me in the least. My gut told me from early on that once Governors eased restrictions, the Bishops would continue to persecute the faithful by withholding sacraments. It's like our very own Bishops are purposely trying to destroy the Church. Even going to Mass now in the Chicago Archdiocese is a mini persecution. There are so many rules and regs that Mass is almost completely devoid of it's spiritual gifts, and keeping one's mind on what's going on. They keep you so busy following all the 'rules' of distance, mask wearing, following exact ways to receive Communion, social distancing, hand sanitizing, not touching the pew in front of you etc, etc., that you have to struggle to pray the Mass. And God help you if you have to cough or sneeze! It's a very tense situation to go to Mass in my Diocese. They've succeeded in making it 'mechanical'. And that's if you can even get in because 'you haven't registered ahead of time.' Dear God please step in.
ReplyDelete@HicksonMaike:
ReplyDeleteTerrible. Easter is cancelled in Italy a second time.
Unthinkable. Italy is locking down over the Easter weekend. It is not clear from this article how much Easter Masses will be allowed.