The above title is an apt summary for the latest rantings by Father Thomas Reese. He is a Jesuit purveyor of dissidence and general hatred of the One True Faith. I suppose that last statement contains some redundancies but it still bears saying.
We find his latest piece of manure at Religion News Service, entitled "The Future Of Catholic Liturgical Reform". In truth, he is simply engaging in a death throe of the glory days of hippie priests and pant-suit nuns. It is a hodge-podge collection of anti-Catholic and anti-God slogans, all disjointed from each other. There is so much error in it, one scarcely knows where to begin to unpack the mess.
You'll notice that he has an axe to grind with Pope Benedict XVI. No doubt this grudge is a result of Pope Benedict's removal of Reese from his editor position at America rag-mag. One of the more outlandish statements he made was that "children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses (meaning the Traditional Latin Mass)." One of the commenters in the article rightly pointed out that any such prohibition is a usurpation of parental authority. Please do read the comments for that article; by and large, the readers see through the farce that pours forth from Reese.
He no doubt notices that the abandonment of tradition is itself passing away with each aging hippy that goes to his or her eternal reward. The young people who stay with the Church understand, even if only instinctively, that progressive wreckovators like Reese have done nothing but mock our Lord and leave many of their contemporaries rudderless and without knowledge of eternal matters. They understand that tradition is the guardian of timeless truth and are flocking to it. Some of us older folks get it, too. I go to Traditional Latin Masses on Sundays these days. A goodly percentage of those attending these Masses are young couples with their children - and often quite a few children at that. Now we see why Reese wants them banned from the Mass. Reese seems to have jettisoned his faith and replaced it with both ignorance and arrogance.
At least he understands, from a perverse perspective, the principle of "lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivandi". This is why he states quite plainly that he wants the Latin Mass to disappear. That Mass is the most sublime prayer of the Church. He and his buddies understand that if the Latin Mass is jettisoned, then both faith and morals will likewise be lost. We've seen it happen on a large scale now for at least 50 years. Reese wants it to continue unchallenged.
Below I post an analysis of Reese's screed by Taylor Marshall. Please take the time to listen to this. I echo his suggestion that all attend the Traditional Latin Mass.
I have spoken with young families in my own parish and have found that many are drawn to the Latin Mass because of its mystique, its traditions, and of course because of its structure. The music and chanting also are a big draw. After 1965 the ideological pendulum swung so far to the left that some of the older parishioners would say that mass was celebrated everywhere but the church! Thankfully the people who supported this type of liturgical experiments are no longer in ministry, allowing for the pendulum to swing more towards the middle and a more moderate liturgical ideology.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, while I consider myself to be left of center on many social issues, there is something about celebrating the Eucharist in a church building with a choir and cantor. And, if Fr. Reese were to be as tolerant and open minded as he claims to be, he would be celebrating the fact that young families were participating in the liturgy and NOT part of the growing number of "nones."