Monday, March 25, 2024

A Tale Of Two Vastly Different Masses

At long last, the third part of the Mass of the Ages trilogy has been released.  I posted both of the earlier episodes in previous posts, but that was several years ago.  You can watch the entire trilogy at the Mass of the Ages website.  I strongly urge that you do so, especially if you haven't yet seen the earlier ones.  Below this clip I will tell you of the other type of Mass.


This is a Mass that occurred at St. Teresa of Avila parish in Washington DC.  My blogging colleague at An Archdiocese of Washington Catholic alerted me to a series that he is doing regarding flagrant liturgical abuse there, based on a video taken by a friend of his at that Mass.  This blogger is breaking his expose down into several segments.  I have an idea of what those segments might be, for I cheated and watched quite a bit of the clip to which he linked.  Please be checking his blog during the next several days. 

Now what do you think the chances are that Cardinal Gregory will take corrective measures?  My guess is that those chances are slim to none.  However, he was quick to quash a thriving Latin Mass at St Mary's Church in the Chinatown area of Washington.  On the one hand, there is a dissident parish with a guy dressed in imam get-up reading the Gospel, followed by a woman giving the sermon, but the Latin Mass was a problem?

Please give not one more red penny to this diocese until they get their priorities in order.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Coming Soon To A Parish Near You? Prepare NOW!

Thanks to Canon 212, I read of the debacle of a funeral Mass offered in Atlanta GA for the pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Archdiocese of Atlanta (not DC, but Atlanta).  His name is Henry Gracz, a progressive who was often taken to task by faithful Catholic social media outlets.  Of course the Not-At-All Catholic Reporter gushed all over him.  The progressive rag published a statement sent to them regarding Gracz written by DC's Cardinal Gregory.  Recall that, prior to his transfer to DC, Gregory was archbishop of Atlanta and would have been quite familiar to him.  Graca was accurately celebrated for "welcoming" LGTBetc people.  That is to say, he coddled their mortal sins.  That is a mindset shared by Cardinal Gregory, as evidence by Gregory himself.   During one of Gregory's first outreaches after his move to DC, he sang the praises of Fortunate Families, a gay-enabling organization.   He also equated "sexual orientation" as just another characteristic as are race or nationality in a Catholic Standard article.  For other indiscretions committed by Gregory, see this anthology of previous posts.

But let's get back to this funeral Mass, at which both Archbishop Hartmayer and Cardinal Gregory concelebrated.  Both the Remnant and Gloria.TV reveal that two of the "altar servers" are in fact males that are in the process of mutilating themselves to pretend that they're female.  Both in fact have been active in perversion promotions.  One of them, in a recent local Pride parade, carried the Shrine's banner.  I daresay that he most likely had Gracz's approval.  By the way - we must pray for Gracz's soul, for a prelate to condone and promote such sin does not at all bode well regarding his eternal salvation.

Now here is a question that we should now address, for this bodes ill for the Archdiocese of Washington.  Will this man Cardinal Gregory be foisting upon some DC-area pastor to inherently sinful demand to allow perverts to receive Holy Communion and even occupy key roles in our Masses and other church functions?  If so, what are we, that is, YOU AND I, prepared to do about it?  Think long and hard about that.  Confer with your friends about it.  I suspect this will come a lot sooner than we may have anticipated.

Friday, March 15, 2024

On The Maryland Legislative Landscape

Maryland Right to Life has a comprehensive list of current proposed bills that have direct impacts on innocent life and decent morality.  Fellow Marylanders, I urge you to visit that list and study these things for yourselves.  Implement the actions suggested at the top of the page.  Remember that as a citizen, you not only have rights; you also have the responsibilities that go along with citizenship: to be vigilant and active.

Also take note of who the authors and sponsors of the various bill are, and let that information guide your voting decisions in November 2026.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Bugnini's Invention Of The Novus Ordo Rite - Sinister Intentions And Results

Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivandi.  That means "how we pray is how we'll believe, and how we believe is how we will live".  Haven't we seen that truth play out in this day and age.  As the Mass was warped by Vatican II, most likely at the instigation of Bishop Bugnini, a secret Mason at the time, we saw how chaos tore through the church, and thus through the world.  Padre Pio once said that the world could sooner survive without the sun than without the Mass.  He understood that the Mass, as had been codified during Vatican I, was a crucial source of grace for the world.  Of course that grace has been compromised.

Lifesite News interviewed Kyle Clement, an assistant to Father Chad Ripperger, a well-known exorcist.  Clement stated that the rites used by Freemasons are perverse mimicries of the Sacramental rites.


Father Gerald Murry, whom some of you may know as one of the Papal Posse (along with Raymond Arroyo and Robert Royal) interviewed with Joe McClane on the latter's podcast.  McClane, prior to his conversion to the Catholic faith, was a freemason.  That interview is below.

 


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Join This Nine-Month Novena For The Salvation Of Souls

Cardinal Raymond Burke authored a nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, asking her intercession upon our very troubled and sin-sick world.  It commenced today and is to be prayed everyday until December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  I reproduce it below.  Copy it, share it, and get all your friends to join you in prayer.



Saturday, March 9, 2024

The March 7 SOTU Address - Or Shilling For The Dead-Beat Vote

To augment my Lenten mortification, I decided to watch the recording of Biden's little screed.  Just an FYI, I watched it as it appeared on the White House's site, so no mean old right-wingers tampered with it!

I will leave off (for now) the demonic pledge to further normalize child-slaughter in our legal landscape, along with sexual perversions of every sort.  Obviously that came as no surprise.  I will touch upon one thing that shows his contempt for the average American citizen as he vowed to facilitate financially irresponsible behavior.

He pretended to champion the plight of impovershed people as he pledged to have late payment fees on credit cards slashed drastically.  Now no one likes paying late fees on their bills, but may I suggest a simpler way to avoid them?  Brace yourselves, for this is probably a revolutionary and certainly controversial concept!  Ready?   Here it is!

PAY YOUR BILL ON TIME!

If you do that, you'll pay zero dollars in late fees.  Thank me very much!

Anyone who signs up for a credit card agrees to the terms, and those terms include the provisions for late fees, interest, etc IF the card issuers don't receive timely payment.  Stop whining and crying if you're late, in violation of your agreement, and are levied the penalties.  Put on your big-boy/big-girl/big-whatever-mythical-gender-or-species-you-fancy-yourself-to-be pants and pay up.  Take your lumps like an adult and learn from your mistakes.

But Plugs wants to coddle the late-payers.  Does he really think the card issuers will just swallow the lost revenue?  Of course not.  No business can survive without recovering their costs.  They'll just increase the merchant discount fees and those merchantes will, in turn, pass those costs onto all their innocent customers.  I know I'm bursting some fantasy-bubbles here, but that's life in the real world.  

Of course, Plugs and his progressive sycofants don't deal with reality.  That's just another reason to vote them all out of office come November.

That means that we don't sit out this election, for the progressives and their dead-beat dependents won't.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Cocaine Cocco Chumming It Up With Freemasons

A few weeks ago, Cardinal Coccopalmerio (yes, him!) took part in a Masonic conference between three Italian Masonic lodges.  Now he's jibber-jabbering about "permanent dialog" between the Church and the Masons.  The Church has always condemned Freemasonry, owing to the latter's various idolatries and general animus against the Catholic Church and the One True Faith that she possesses and preaches.  

Nothing, NOTHING has changed.  Recall that at the Second Vatican Council,  it was Archbishop Bugnini, secretly a Mason, who engineered the butchery of the Mass and other Sacraments, resulting in the extremely compromised Sacramental rites that we have today.

Because of the drug-orgy in which his officials engaged six years ago, the cardinal has earned the nickname "Cocaine Cocco".  Anyway, he was not the only prelate at that Masonic conference.  Bishop Antonio Stagliano, president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, was also present.  He came out of that meeting stating that Catholicism and Freemasonry are absolutely incompatible.  He stated that masonry is aligned with the Arian heresy, for they held that Christ is nothing more than a "great architect of the universe".   They deny Jesus' divinity. 

However, Stagliano engaged in some verbal gymnastics, using thinking that is the basis for Fiducia Supplicans.  You see, one does not bless Freemasonry, but individual Masons can be blessed.  That is that little workaround, in their eyes.

I've written of the dangers of Freemasonry in the past.  Msgr Charles Pope, a local priest who is involved with deliverance ministry, warns of the spiritual dangers that come with fraternizing with Freemasonry.  The spiritual dangers stem in large part from masonic curses, rendering one vulnerable to demonic activity.  Several exorcists speak of cases of demonic possession or obsession that stem from masonic curses, some going back many generations in one's family.

Now it seems that Francis wants to mainstream it into the Church, just as he's trying to do with "gay blessings", adulterers coming to Holy Communion, etc.

Friday, March 1, 2024

Maryland Assisted Suicide Measures Halted - For Now

From the Maryland Catholic Conference:

Today, Maryland Senate leadership announced the votes aren't there to pass a bill legalizing physician assisted suicide in our state.

In a press conference, Senate President Bill Ferguson said, “We are not going to be taking a vote on the bill this year. It does not appear that we have the votes to pass it in the Senate and so we will not be moving forward.”

The vote was close – one to two votes short on the 11-member Judicial Proceedings Committee that was considering the bill. House leadership already said they would not move ahead unless the Senate did.

Your emails, calls and prayers made the difference.

Senator Will Smith, chair of the committee, said, “I think that as folks got closer to the vote and had more in-depth discussions with their constituents, folks just expressed unreadiness to move on it….[Y]ou have to respect the decisions of the individual senators who are listening to their constituents and listening to their conscience on this issue.”

What does this mean going forward?

While this is great news, he and Senator Ferguson made it clear they expect the bill to come back in the future. And, it’s important we not only prepare for next year, but stay vigilant this year. The session isn’t over until April 8.

There are two key takeaways here.

  1. The phone calls, emails, lobbying efforts of each and every citizen counts.  It certainly did in this case, as the vote was quite close in the Judicial Proceedings Committee.  When we first heard of this, I posted about a great lobbying tool.  I link now to it for your future use.  That brings me to the second takeaway.
  2. We must always be vigilant regarding our legislators and be ready to act, no matter what else may be going on in life.  The anti-life cartel is quite disciplined in that regard, ready to drop everything else and engage in lobbying.  We must do no less.
Maryland session ends next month.  As other matters come up, I will post them.

Attacks On Tradition And Piety Continue Unabated

When I endured my little insult this past weekend, I wondered if it was due to a growing trend among establishment clergy: that is, clergy slavishly beholden to Francis and his now-obvious animus towards the Faith.  I believe it is.  Indeed, two more recent examples have come to all our attention.

In the Diocese of Westminster in England, Cardinal Nichols announced that no celebration of the Triduum in the Latin rite will be permitted.  Over the past several years, people had been coming from surrounding areas to celebrate Triduum as had been done for hundreds of years.  Nichols, in his letter, stated "I realize that this will disappoint some people, but I have to keep the wider picture in view."  This "wider picture" entails the systematic deconstruction of Sacred Tradition.  Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivandi.  The "lex orandi" is under direct attack.

Closer to home in Texas, in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, the Sevigny family, a Catholic family of six, own and operate a ranch and retreat center that they call Sanctus Ranch.  Archbishop Garcia-Sillar issued, on January 30, a public letter to all Catholics in his diocese not to do business with the ranch.  He specifically forbade Catholic organizations not to utilize the ranch for retreats or other spiritual purposes.  I understand that Garcia-Sillar has that authority over Catholic organizations, but what right does he have to tell the ordinary person to conduct no business whatsoever with the ranch?  Clearly he has overstepped his bounds.  He also ordered organizations that had already signed contracts to explore ways to break the contracts.

Garcia-Sillar stated as a reason that there is an "unapproved chapel lacking canonical status", forgetting that he himself offered Mass there in the past.  Might the reason be that (gasp!) the Latin Mass is offered there?   Here is Garcia-Sillar's letter as it appears on the diocese's site.  Here is the response from Sanctus Ranch

Two prelates have recently spoken against this trend of progressive bishops to degrade and mock our Faith.  Bishop Joseph Strickland penned an open letter to all bishops, including Francis, exhorting them to "return to Christ and His way".  LifeSiteNews has the full text of his letter.

Cardinal Sarah  has voiced full support of the African bishops who are not going to implement Fiducia Supplicans.  That would be all African bishops, except those in South Africa.  He recently stated that Fiducia Supplicans MUST be resisted for it contains heresy that will undermine the Catholic faith.  Cardinal Muller said the same thing.

Now what does all that mean for us lay Catholics?  Frankly, I live in a diocese that could easily see an attempt to "bless" mortally sinful relationships.  Will we have the presence of mind and courage to denounce these things, even to the point of protesting when and where they are occurring?

Monday, February 26, 2024

Is Traditional Piety Being Belittled In Your Diocese?

As a background to what I am about to relate, as well as a general reminder to all Catholics who take seriously our responsibilities to secure our own salvation, I present to you some writings about the advisability of frequent confession.

From the Baltimore Catechism:

294. Why should we go to confession frequently?
We should go to confession frequently because frequent confession greatly helps us to overcome temptation, to keep in the state of grace, and to grow in virtue.

Note that one of the Precepts of the Church is to confess our sins once a year, if we have mortal sin on our souls.  One who does this and no more is depriving him/herself of much spiritual grace to effect their eternal salvation.  I strongly suspect that there are few people who would eat only the bare minimum needed to survive.  Rather, they would nourish themselves as frequently as possible (as far as they are able).  How much more should we receive the Sacraments as frequently as possible?

One benefit that question 294 did not mention is that one of the requirements for a plenary indulgence is to go to confession within a week of performing an indulgenced act.  Bi-weekly confession suffices to fulfill that requirement for plenary indulgences.  Therefore, I strive for bi-weekly confessions for the plenary indulgences for my deceased parents and other relatives and friends who have died.

Not too long ago, I was making one of my bi-weekly confessions in a parish in the Archdiocese of Washington.  I was there quite early so there were only two of us in line.  I went first.  I began my confession by telling the priest that it was two weeks since my last confession, when he interrupts me to say that I needn't confess so frequently unless there was serious sin.  As I confessed my sins, he tried to chalk them off as mere weaknesses.  I had to contradict him to tell him that there was indeed sin involved and proceeded to confess.  He wouldn't let me pray an Act of Contrition.  Instead he asked two or three questions regarding contrition then gave absolution.  He ended by advising me not to confess unless there were serious sins.  As I didn't think it appropriate to broach that Baltimore Catechism statement, I just left the confessional.  All in all, he was quite terse and dismissive towards me. 

Obviously I found this quite odd.  In light of the lackluster signals emanating from the Vatican, many of which seem to have the goal of deemphasizing consideration of eternity and thus care for securing eternal salvation, I wonder if similar incidents are happening in the Archdiocese of Washington and other locales?  If my readers have any similar situations to relay, please let us know in the comments.  If you would, please let us know the dioceses in which this occurs.