Resisting The Destruction Of The Mass Of The Ages

The trashing of the Traditional Latin Mass, along with those of us who attend that mass, continues unabated.  Listen to this screed uttered by Father Brendan Hoban, who occupies an influential role in the Irish Synod.  In that interview, it's no surprise that he eschews his clerics as he mocks young traditionally-minded priests for wearing their cassocks.  He "despairs of these young priests".

We will have to resist the de facto tyranny.  There are places where the Traditional Latin Mass is still offered.  You will have to locate them and decide on a course of action.  Perhaps you'll even have to have underground Masses if the local prelates are particularly draconian.

As lay people, we don't have much voice - but we do have some.  We can speak to them the language of money - or the cessation of money, to be more precise.  A couple who are in the Diocese of Arlington penned an open letter to Bishop Burbidge and the Remnant newspaper published it.  I link to it here and urge you all to advise your prelates that your money donations may well cease.  

I realize that one of the Six Precepts of the Church is to "support the work of the church".  In past times, we have always assumed that this precept was fulfilled by regular contributions to our parishes and diocese.  But that precept doesn't stipulate that.  In fact, by no stretch of the imagination can the suppression of the Mass of the Ages be construed as "the work of the church".   Rather, support those priests who do offer the Traditional Latin Mass.  If you can't find any, there is always a pro-life pregnancy center or some worthwhile charity that actually helps marginalized peoples, like a food bank.  

Like Mr. and Mrs. DeSimone, we must be up front to our prelates, stand up to them - not anonymously - and advise them that if they don't honor Quo Primum then they will receive not one red cent from you.

Church Hierarchy Feeling Some Much-Needed Financial Pain

Please go to the website of Our Parish Times and examine the January 2020 edition.  On the front page, left side is an article by Msgr John Enz ler entitled "Is Our Anger Hurting Those Most In Need?"  As you read it, you'll see that it's not much more than a cheap attempt to lay guilt trips on faithful Catholics who are making their disappointment known in the only language the Church hierarchy understands - money.  Well, obviously we are having an impact in that area.  That is why we see this backlash from Ensler, who no doubt scribbled this screed at the behest of higher-ups in the Church. 

Not only does Enzler dance around the problems that we are addressing (other than token lip service), but he is actually downright dishonest about the use of our donations.  Nowhere in his diatribe do I see acknowledged the fact that a portion of our donations to our parishes is assessed by the Archdiocese and then paid to the chancery.  Moreover, as I noted last week, the Archdiocese in turn forks over a portion of those assessments to the USCCB.  In his article, Enzler quotes the late Tip O'Neill who said "all politics is local".  If that is the case, Msgr Enzler, why shouldn't donations stay local as well?

If the DC chancery is really concerned about the financial well-being of their parishes, they would announce ways that parishioners could donate without any money being siphoned up the chain of command.  Perhaps they might cease their own contributions to the USCCB.  Perhaps the bishops as a whole stop having their semi-annual meetings in swanky hotels; a retreat center would be more in conformity with their sacerdotal offices, anyway.

In the meantime, I would suggest that faithful Catholics do all they can to keep their money from funding corrupt chanceries and the USCCB.  Now we do have the precept of the Church that says we must support the work of the Church.  But it is not the work of the Church to shield predators from justice or to glom onto progressive causes as though they are equivalent to the salvation of souls.  There are traditional orders to be supported.  There are local charities and pro-life efforts that operate on shoe-string budgets.  There are local food banks and soup kitchens that need help.  Truth-telling Catholic sites such as LifeSiteNews and Lepanto Institute need assistance.  This is a non-exhaustive list of organizations that will put your donation dollars to worthy use.

Maybe Enzler might want to think of the real mission of the Church.  Then he might write of himself and his cronies, "Is Our Dereliction of Duty Condemning the Souls in Our Care to Hell?"

Blessed Sacrament In DC Tries To Salvage Church Donations

When I went to a weekday Mass at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in DC during last week, I saw their Aug 5 bulletin and an item caught my eye.  It's a letter from the relatively new pastor, Father Bill Foley, addressing the congregation about the McCarrick mess.  Here it is.

At first it starts out in a relatively conciliatory tone, but it isn't long before we get to the real heart of the matter.  Notice how he says that those harmed by the Cardinal might be "filled with rage" and "seek revenge".  That's rather pejorative language, don't you think?  That's a thinly-veiled attempt to cajole good people who've been hurt into not seeking redress for the harm done for them.

Regrettably, the only way we can do that is to withhold money.  Otherwise, the bishops will continue to brush off our concerns.  Cardinal Wuerl demonstrated that quite amply with his dismissive attitudes towards the laity, suggesting that:

• bishops investigate themselves and each other and 
• that we are not in a "massive, massive crisis"

Why does Father Foley not recall that?  Does he too think the laity are naive little bumpkins?  Moreover, if he's concerned about limiting "what the parish does to serve you", why doesn't he simply divulge to the congregation the donations that aren't assessed by the Archdiocese?  After all, he does opine that the withholding "will not in any significant way affect the Archdiocese", so what harm would assessment-free support do?  Yoo-hoo!  Are you listening, Father Foley??

I already laid out a strategy to starve the chancery beasts while supporting decent parishes.   One question that each Catholic will have to answer for themselves is whether or not their individual parish warrants support.  There is a matter of justice if you're attending Mass there, sitting in their pews, using their bathrooms, etc, that might require some minimum, even if the parish is lackluster.  By the way - Blessed Sacrament has been known to host pro-aborts, celebrate dissidents, etc.  In all fairness to Father Foley, these insults to the Faith occurred prior to his arrival there.

I haven't done too extensive a search, but I haven't seen any such dribble in any other parish bulletins.  Has anyone else?

A Suggested Plan Of Action To Cripple The Gay Apparatus In The US Church

In light of the significant development in the McCarrick situation yesterday, that is, his ouster from the College of Cardinals and subsequent taking up of a life of secluded prayer and penance, I would have expected some sort of statement from the DC chancery to be read at Mass, as one was when he was first ordered to cease public ministry.  Instead we heard - nothing!  Zero-zip-nada!  Crickets!

How disingenuous!  Does the chancery really take faithful Catholics to be naive simpletons?  I've no doubt that one big reason behind their silence is that they hope McCarrick's removal will satisfy us and that they no longer have to worry about the consequences of their aiding and abetting McCarrick throughout the years.  This is pure damage control.

For those of you who believe that the poor dears in the chancery simply didn't have enough time to craft a decent statement, may I present this open letter regarding the situation that was released by Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth (TX)?  In all honesty, I've had issues with Olson in the past few years as the Texas bishops seemed hell-bent on electing RINOs to offices as opposed to real pro-life people, but I appreciate his alacrity in addressing his congregation about this matter.  By contrast we see how disingenuous the DC chancery really is.

If the chancery thought their silence would cause our attention and resolve to dissipate, they are sorely mistaken.  We are NOT going to relax our vigilance and we will NOT cease our prayers and actions until the vile cabal that aided and abetted McCarrick throughout the years is dismantled and those members be forced to atone for their own sins in this matter.  Let's be clear that many of these are in the DC chancery, as well as the USCCB.

So what do we do?  First, we make sure we ourselves pray and remain in the state of grace.  Under no circumstances do we contemplate abandoning the Barque of Peter' that is the mortal sin of apostasy. But there are other actions we must take, and these actions are predicated on the understanding that these bishops only understand one language from us, and that language is money.

• We must cease contributing to any diocesan collections.  That includes the Cardinal's Appeal.  It means that we boycott the CCHD collection next week if we aren't already doing so.  We should be boycotting it anyway, for those monies are used to fund various anti-God leftwing organizations.  For those collection envelopes, my post from a few days ago had some suggested language.  Alternatively, you might want to use the envelope stuffer at the bottom.
• The Archdiocese of Washington skims 10% off the regular weekly collection at Mass.  Two collections are exempted from the assessment: Christmas and Easter.  Consider cessation of the weekly donations and instead put those funds into the Christmas and/or Easter collection.  While it's true that this might make for uneven cash flow, it will actually mean more money for the parish as they will keep 100% of it.  Recall that McCarrick abused seminarians at his beach house.  With what money was this beach house funded?  Our donation dollars! 
• For other localities, circumstances may vary, such as what collections are exempt, etc.  Please do your own research and act accordingly.

We must financially starve these behemoths that condone and even facilitate such horrid crimes.  As I've described above for the DC area, there are most likely ways to do so without detriment to decent parishes.  Let's get going.

The envelope stuffer mentioned above: