Philadelphia Chapter

Fr. Gerald E. Murray
Saturday, January 16, 2016

he book God or Nothing, a wide-ranging interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, by the French journalist Nicolas Diat is one of the most refreshing things published in recent memory. I cannot praise this book too highly. It breathes forth the wisdom, insight, and deep faith of a truly devoted servant of the Church. It is a prophetic witness to the truth. Sarah gets to the root of what is ailing the world today, and proposes the Church’s unchanging remedy: faith in God as revealed by His Son Jesus Christ. Along the way, he also chides fellow churchmen and the faithful for those occasions when surrender to a worldly spirit has brought great harm to the Church.

Pope St. Pius X was asked after his election what would be the program of his pontificate. He pointed to a crucifix and said, “This is my program.” In a similar vein, asked about the current situation, “Is it a crisis of the Church or a ‘crisis of God?’,” Sarah responds: “Contrary to what we may think, the greatest difficulty of men is not in believing what the Church teaches at the moral level; the most difficult thing for the postmodern world is to believe in God and in his only Son.”

The root problem in Western society – and the Church – comes down to this: degrees of unbelief in God and in his revelation. This unbelief ranges from atheism (theoretical and practical) to agnosticism (often the fruit of ignorance, laziness, or spiritual blindness) to pick-and-choose Catholicism. When we fail to adhere unreservedly to Christ and his teaching, we are left to our own devices – not a happy thought.

Sarah states: “If the tie between God and Christians is weakened, the Church becomes simply a human structure, one society among others. With that, the Church becomes trivial; she makes herself worldly and is corrupted to the point of losing her original nature. Indeed, without God we create a Church in our own image, for our little needs, likes, and dislikes. Fashion takes hold of the Church, and the illusion of sacredness become perishable, a sort of outdated medication.”

God_or_Nothing

Consider such remarkable things as the recent praise of the late David Bowie by L’Osservatore Romano. This follows upon earlier elegizing of Michael Jackson and the recent use of St. Peter’s Basilica as a projection screen for various profane images. Even more significantly, the Faith has been trivialized by the campaign to give Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried. The mere repetition of the Lord’s words, “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery” (Lk 16-18). is dismissed as harsh, uncharitable, and morose.

The reception of Holy Communion by those living in an invalid second marriage is viewed by the innovators as a matter of justice – a remedy for unjustly excluding them from the community of the faithful, exposing them to unwarranted shame, and frustrating their laudable desire to be nourished by the Lord. The innovators derisively stigmatize 2000 years of Catholic teaching as an outdated, rigorist, and fundamentalist reading of the Lord’s words. Such intransigence allegedly prevents the Church from carrying out the Lord’s “real intention”: that everyone who wants to receive Holy Communion be invited to participate at the banquet of his Body and Blood.

But the Lord’s words are clear and have been faithfully applied in the life of the Church from the beginning. They cannot be dismissed without undermining the binding force of everything else He said. The campaign to clear the way for Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried is a corruption, remaking the Church into a sentimental gathering in which only certain parts of what the Lord said are preached and lived.

Here’s the new drill: if we find something in the Gospel offensive to our new sensibilities, then let’s ignore it and effectively rewrite Church teaching by changing her sacramental practice. To calm nerves, let’s claim that the doctrine remains unchanged. We do not really believe that, of course, but it is the necessary camouflage for revolutionary doctrinal innovation until we can cast off this pretense. Then we can simply announce that whatever anyone thought that Christ’s teaching meant in the past, it now means something quite different, thanks to the gift of the “prophetic voices of our age.”

How did we get to this point? Cardinal Sarah supplies the answer: “Western societies are organized and live as though God did not exist. Christians themselves, on many occasions, have settled down to a silent apostasy.” The sacred nature of the sacraments has been swallowed up in a humanistic view that sees the Church as a dispenser of personal comfort and consolation, and as a promoter of group solidarity and social action.

In this scheme, not allowing someone who wants to receive Holy Communion to do so is intolerable. Is it not a silent apostasy when some churchmen tell us that the unworthy reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood must not be interfered with by reminding the faithful of what the Lord actually said?

Our largely toxic Western culture is reflexively hostile to truth claims that conflict with the sexual revolution. The Church has the mission to proclaim the truth about marriage as taught by Our Lord, not cast that teaching aside in order to conform to the world. Cardinal Sarah is again on target when he says: “The Church proclaims the Word of God and celebrates the sacraments in the world. She must do this with the utmost honesty, a genuine rigor, a merciful respect for human miseries that she has the duty to lead toward the ‘splendor of truth,’ to quote the opening words of an encyclical by John Paul II.”

As the French say, “Ainsi soit-il,” “May it thus be” – which is to say, Amen.

Priest: Rev. Fr. Jason Kulczynski.

Mass Intention: Vincent Quercetti (RIP) req. by Fred Quercetti.

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Christmas Memorials: (Remembered at Mass Christmas Day)

In Memory of or For the Intentions of
Fred & Sheila Quercetti, requested by Fred & Sheila Quercetti;
Stephen & Christina Cooper, requested by Stephen & Christina Cooper;
Thi Lee, requested by Thi Lee;
Lou Scola & Leo Gerace, requested by John Castiello; and,
Louise Tulleken, requested by Louise Tulleken.

Scheduling: Please be advised that 2016 Masses and Liturgical Services are CANCELED for Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday & Holy Saturday. Please adjust your schedules accordingly.

Mass Intentions available (as of Jan. 11): February 21 & 28; March 6, 13 & 20, 2016.

Taxes: If anyone needs verification of their donations for tax purposes, you will need to request it. Please realize it will take Fr. McKale some time so do not wait until the last minute.

Upcoming Masses:

A) Solemn High Mass for Candlemas, February 2, 2016 at 7PM at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, Philadelphia, PA

Events: If anyone has pertinent information that would be appropriate for our bulletin, please e-mail it to Fr. McKale @ tlmcommunityofphila@gmail.com.

Mass Intentions: If anyone still has unfulfilled Mass intentions, Fr. McKale can pass them on to a priest that will satisfy the intention by offering a TLM or Divine Liturgy (Byzantine). Please specify if you have a preference. The donation is $10. If you would like a Mass card, please include an extra $5 for the card.

Posted on 9 January 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

NCReg has an interview with a player on the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin McDermott, both a mackeral-snapper and a long-snapper.

Here is the bit that caught my eye:

Q: How does the Catholic Church help you the most?

McDermott: What gives me the most strength and security is being a part of the routines and rituals of the Church. I realized in high school, partially due to a retreat in my junior year, how dependent I was on a regular schedule that included Sunday Mass. Then, as pro football became more and more of a real-life possibility, I was determined to keep up a schedule based on traditional spirituality.
I wanted to do well in football, for sure, but football was not going to get in the way of being a good Catholic. Every week for me in the NFL — whether that was preseason, regular season or postseason — has also included a Sunday Mass, which, most of the time, has been done the evening before games.
Maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of was a Latin Mass in London. The 49ers were over there in 2013 for a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the priest made available to the team only did Latin Masses. Usually, people associate traditional Masses like that with beautiful cathedrals — something I’ve experienced as an altar boy in Nashville — but this time, it was in a conference room of a hotel.
Despite the plain surroundings, or maybe even because of them, I was so enthralled and moved by what was happening. It was an ordinary situation made quite extraordinary through the beautiful gift of the Latin Mass. Being a part of that with my teammates was unexpected and much appreciated.

From Rorate Caeli Site: A guest op-ed by Tomás Rodríguez (pen name)

A priest recently revealed his belief that the Latin Liturgy prayed ad orientem focuses upon God and not the priest/people. He’s right, but revealing his belief was dangerous because it invited a question. He was asked if he would institute ad orientem worship in his parish. Sadly, he said no, citing lack of catechesis, that it will be poorly received, etc. in defense of this decision. When we know what is right, are we not supposed to do it?

There is a simple fact about catechesis: passing on the Faith requires the utmost care and precision. An ancillary fact is the oft quoted (and hardly ever cited) alleged statement of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary use words.” If it is truly a question of catechesis and preparing the people for necessary changes, when can we expect to see some action? We do not see much, and when we do there often follows a significant backlash.

This apparent lack of action is a symptom of a much larger problem, namely that priests are being forced to compromise not only their consciences but the Faith itself. Long-winded background explanations about various issues present within the Church today are not necessary. Others have written better and more eloquently on the subject. It suffices to say that one issue in particular is very relevant to the present discussion and that is priestly formation.

There is a famous saying among seminarians, “until the alb and stole hang loose.” In other words, seminarians are told to keep their heads down and their mouths shut until they are ordained. Why would they need to observe such silence? They witness or are part and privy to various abuses and heterodoxy. An environment of fear, not unlike a Communist dictatorship, exists in seminaries that forces otherwise “orthodox” seminarians underground for fear that they will be targeted and not be ordained.

Speaking only within the context of the United States, the system of priestly formation is broken. A man with same-sex attraction and who acted upon these feelings but was thinking about the priesthood once asked a priest about pursuing seminary. The priest instructed this man, “lie.” In other words, the system of formation is so broken that you can take full advantage of it by concealing the truth and get ordained.

Another true story involves a seminarian that left the seminary, in part, because he was persecuted owing to his “pious tendencies” (i.e. kneeling to receive Holy Communion). Why the persecution? “Kneeling is not the norm in the parishes and you have to be obedient to the local Ordinary and Diocesan rules.” The Ordinary’s adherence to the liturgical norms of the Latin Church is never questioned. Bishops hold all power in their Dioceses and whether it is admitted or not, those subject to his authority will not dare to cross him. They fear what will happen to their careers. This rule, however, does not necessarily apply if it is an orthodox Bishop.

It is said that the John Paul II/Benedict XVI generation of priests will “save” the Church from the straits in which she finds herself. This belief presents an untenable myopic vision of the future. The current generation of younger priests has largely been formed by the previous generation that contributed to the dire straits in the first place. What formation has thus been imparted to our newer generation? It would not be wise to do a happy dance and wave our pompoms while singing “the crisis is over” as Ross Douthat recently indicated.

The fact is that new priests get ordained and find the Communistic environment of fear and silence continues in parish life, albeit modified. Now, instead of seminary formators watching them, they have their secret police parish pastor keeping a sharp eye on them. Do not think for a moment these pastors are not keeping tabs on the “young pups” and making reports to authorities at the Diocesan chancery office(s).

A young priest wearing the cassock or a biretta will be a conversation piece at the rectory dining room table, followed by such epithets as “rigid,” “overly conservative,” and the like. Moreover, if he likes to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form, you might as well put the straitjacket on him. In the parlance, these men need to be “broken.” If such tendencies are noted in seminary, they will most likely be assigned to work with a parish priest entrusted (tacitly or overtly) with the task of “breaking” the spirit of the newly-minted priest.

Another form of fear that is used by the pastor is a morbid fear of their comrades the people. In other words, “we do not do ‘X’ here in this parish because it will not go over well with the people” (Read: they will not like me and take their money/resources elsewhere). This line of thinking is based upon human respect, which is a condemned practice in the spiritual life, for “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Human respect has a vicious tendency to neglect the saving truths (and pursuant ways of action) of Christ that lead us to heaven. In the case at hand, a practice (ad orientem) that directs people specifically to the worship of God as opposed to focusing upon man is being neglected because “the people” will not tolerate it. Who is the custodian of the Truths of God and His holy Church here, the priest or the people?

One can certainly understand in the light of the current state of affairs that restoring ad orientem worship of Almighty God would be an uphill battle, one that requires the greatest of caution and care. Few priests, however, are climbing that hill and we need to pray for them. They are horribly brutalized by their respective Dioceses and this is an understatement. In seminary formation, they are socialized or conditioned to fear things like Latin and tradition.

In one case known to this writer, a group of women ran a priest out of a parish by complaining to his Diocese using the right key words to the authorities. This priest did nothing except what he was supposed to be doing as a priest, bring the tradition to the people (Latin, Chant, etc.). He now serves in a parish out in the boonies that is usually assigned to priests who experience troubles with the bottle or pornography. It is unjust, and while such atrocities make saints and are a sign of God’s favor, we must never think that it is acceptable for Ordinaries to persecute their priests as such (i.e. to do evil that good may come about).

Priests are forced to compromise their mission because they do not want to “jeopardize their priesthood” (to use their expression). Let us remember that a priest is a priest. One’s priesthood (in se) is not necessarily jeopardized. It is his ability to exercise the ministry which is at stake. His Ordinary can restrict the priest’s faculties by making him have as little an influence as the Ordinary is canonically able to do (nursing homes and boonie-parishes being likely options).

Priests are charged with the care of souls. It is by their hand that a person will experience heaven or hell. At the priest’s own judgment, he will stand before the Rex tremendae maiestatis—the King of tremendous majesty—where there are no excuses. Only the truth of his life and how he served Christ the King are what matters. Those dreaded words ought to give pause, namely “Depart from Me, ye accursed, for I knew ye not…” (Matthew 7:23).

The above fact of the priesthood ought to instill the deepest of fear and dread in priests and the bishops who shepherd them. Sadly, it does not. Many priests know what transpires in their respective chancery offices and among their brother priests. They live in fear of what will happen to them should they speak out. Those who do are made martyrs and the fullest extent of the law, abuse and scare tactics are applied to them by the authorities. Meanwhile, fornicating priests, porn-addicts and sodomites are all protected or given passes.

There is a very real dark and satanic subculture among the presbyterate and episcopacy in the United States. We need to pray for our priests, especially those for whom God has chosen to give the special grace of suffering persecution for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. These priests may not be recognized by the powers that be for the good priests that they are, but they are true pastors of the Church. To these priests, know that you are not overlooked. While people may not know and recognize you en masse in this life, God sees and His grace will be your comfort.

by Msgr. Charles Pope 01/07/2016

In this post I want to summon my fellow Catholics who love the Traditional Latin Mass to a greater appreciation of their obligation to evangelize. I sense that the Traditional Latin Mass has reached its peak in terms of numbers attending, though I admit to having only anecdotal evidence. Further, I believe that not only are the numbers attending the Traditional Latin Mass not growing, they may begin to decline if we are not more urgent. I would like to begin with a story from my early priesthood to make a general point, and then apply it to us who love the tradition.

Some years ago when I was assigned to a parish, the archdiocese explained to me that one of my first tasks would be to close the parish school. This school had been part of an inner city consortium of Catholic schools for some 10 years. Despite raising tens of millions of dollars through fundraising, sharing resources, and trying every conceivable way to attract more students, most of the 14 schools in the consortium were more than half empty and the money supply was simply exhausted. A study was conducted and a commission decided that the schools with low enrollment would have to be combined into regional schools, which were no longer parish-based.

Although most of my parishioners understood the problems and realized that only three families in our parish even had children attending the school, there was a small cadre of very angry parishioners who denounced the archdiocese for “closing our school.”

In a parish-wide meeting held at our school, I reminded them that the archdiocese had been more than generous, contributing more than $7 million over 10 years to keep the school open. But this did not seem to satisfy the angrier ones and led to other questions: “Why can’t they just keep spending the money?” “Why not close other schools?”

I finally sidestepped all of these questions and simply stated the following:

The archdiocese is not closing our school. We are closing our school. The cost of running the school is $1.7 million per year. We are able to raise only $400,000 in tuition per year from the mostly poor families that we have been serving in our half-empty school. The archdiocese, which must take care of over 200 parishes and 50 schools, is able to offer approximately $200,000 in tuition assistance each year. This brings us to $600,000 in income—a $1.1 million shortfall. Therefore, if we as a congregation are willing and able to raise an additional $1.1 million in the offertory every year going forward, we can keep our school open.

How many of you are willing to do this with me? Do you think that we as a congregation can sustain this? That is what it will cost each year to keep our school open: $1.1 million.

The room was very quiet. The congregation was not poor, but they were already very generous in their financial support of the Church. An additional $1.1 million was simply not possible. Even with a great deal of fundraising it would still be nearly impossible.

I concluded the meeting by saying that we had to accept the fact that we were the ones closing our school—no one else. While it was prestigious to have a school, and while there was much historical pride and many fond memories, most of the congregation prudently recognized that their children had long ago graduated, their grandchildren did not attend our school, and that most had very little involvement with the school other than to salute its admittedly grand history.

At the end of the day, numbers matter; not just in terms of money, but in terms of people as well. Frankly, our problem in the Catholic Church today is not one of money, but of people. When only 30% of Catholics go to Mass and many of those give less than 2% of their income to the Church, many activities, buildings, and institutions can no longer be sustained or maintained.

Evangelization matters. Effectively handing on the faith to the next generation matters. Attending Mass regularly and supporting the work of the Church matters. Vocations matter. Sacrificially offering our time, talent, and treasure matters. These truths matter throughout the Church and in every different setting.

Now go with me to a very different situation—a different scenario and part of the Church altogether—and see that the same basic rules apply.

Some years ago (as far back at the early 1980s) we who love the Traditional Latin Mass often said (or it heard said) that if we would just return to the beautiful Latin Mass our churches would again be filled.

At first this appeared to be happening. As many dioceses (through the various indults of the 1980s and 1990s) began to offer the Traditional Latin Mass, those churches were filled, often to standing room only. Liturgical progressives were horrified and traditionalists were joyfully pleased and felt vindicated.

But as the availability of the Traditional Latin Mass has increased, it seems that a certain ceiling has been reached.

In my own archdiocese, although we offer the Traditional Latin Mass in five different locations, we’ve never been able to attract more than a total of about a thousand people. That’s only one-half of one percent of the total number of Catholics who attend Mass in this archdiocese each Sunday.

One of our parishes generously offers a Solemn High Mass once a month on Sunday afternoon, a Mass that I myself have celebrated for over 25 years. But we have gone from seeing the church almost full, to two-thirds full, to now only about one-third full.

Explanations abound among the traditional Catholics I speak to about the lack of growth in attendance at the Traditional Latin Mass. Some say that it is because more options are now available. But one of the promises was that if parishes would just offer the Traditional Latin Mass each parish would be filled again. Others say there are parking issues, or that the Mass times are not convenient, or that the Masses are too far away. But these things were all true 20 years ago when the Solemn Mass was thriving.

It seems that a ceiling has been hit. The Traditional Latin Mass appeals to a certain niche group of Catholics, but the number in that group appears to have reached its maximum.

Some traditional Catholics I speak to say, “If only the archdiocese would promote us more,” or “If only the bishop would celebrate it at all or more frequently.” Perhaps, but many other niche groups in the archdiocese say the same thing about their particular interest.

At the end of the day, for any particular movement, prayer form, organization, or even liturgy, the job of promoting it must belong to those who love it most. Shepherds don’t have sheep; sheep have sheep.

And once again we are back to the fundamental point: numbers matter. Groups that seek respect, recognition, and promotion in the highest places need to remember that numbers do matter; it’s just the way life works. If we who love the Traditional Latin Mass want to be near the top of the bishop’s priority list, we’re going to have to be more than one-half of one percent of Catholics in the pews.

All of this is also background to a sad but instructive story that came out of a large archdiocese in this country. I don’t wish to mention the diocese or the name of the parish. If you want to read the details, the story is available here: Church to be Demolished. For the purposes of this article, though, simply note that the church in question suffered a rather devastating fire. The particular church was home to the Traditional Latin Mass community and was rented from the diocese. The community was permitted to undertake renovations, but given the fact that the parish had closed there was no insurance on the building. Further, as a general rule, dioceses are “self-insured,” which is a way of saying that it is really the diocese (or a cooperative of dioceses), not some huge insurance company, that must pay the damages. Due to the heavy damage sustained in the fire (the roof collapsed), the cost to restore the building was determined to be prohibitive. The diocese in question has chosen to demolish the structure instead.

It is a tragic loss, both historically (it is a one-hundred-year-old building) and for the community.

This is another situation in which numbers matter. The congregation attending the Traditional Latin Mass in this large urban diocese numbered only about 200. Given the typical pattern of Catholic giving, this is not a number that can sustain any parish, let alone one with an older and larger building.

Nevertheless, many bitter recriminations are being directed against the diocese and its bishop. Because many of the complaints are circulating on the Internet, it is not at all clear that the critics are even among the parishioners or clergy of that parish.

But at the end of the day, it really is about numbers. It just doesn’t make sense to plow millions into repairing an old building where only 200 people worship; it is not good stewardship. And ultimately, bishops are not responsible for church maintenance—congregations and people are. Congregations need to pay their insurance and maintain their facilities. Simply having a building is not enough. It must be maintained as well.

Further, simply offering a Traditional Latin Mass is not enough, as I try to show above. People aren’t just going to pile in, relieved that the “silliness” is finally over. Even traditional Catholics have to evangelize.

The stories related in this post are painful. Whether it’s about closing schools in changing inner cities or closing parishes with dwindling congregations, numbers do matter. Numbers don’t matter when it comes to the truth of the faith; but when it comes to institutions, buildings, organizations, liturgical preferences, and so forth, they matter a whole lot.

This is why evangelization and effectively handing on the faith to the next generation is so critical. Simply having a beautiful liturgy, or a historic building, or a school with old roots in the community, is not enough. Attracting, engaging, and evangelizing actual human beings who will support and sustain structures, institutions, and even liturgies is essential. No one in the Church is exempt from this obligation.

If we who love the Traditional Latin Mass thought that it would do its own evangelizing, we were mistaken. It is beautiful and worthy of God in many ways. But in a world of passing pleasures and diversions, we must show others the perennial value of the beautiful liturgy.

The honest truth is that an ancient liturgy, spoken in an ancient language and largely whispered, is not something that most moderns immediately appreciate. It is the same with many of the truths of our faith, which call for sacrifice, dying to self, and rejecting the immediate pleasures of sin for the eternal glories of Heaven. We must often make the case to a skeptical and unrefined world.

Evangelization is hard work, but it is work that matters if we want to maintain a viable presence going forward. The lovers of the Traditional Latin Mass are not exempt.

Evangelize or else close and die. It’s a hard fact, but numbers matter. Too many in the Church today demand respect and support without showing the fruits that earn respect and that make support prudent and reasonable.

If we care, we who love tradition ought to work tirelessly to show forth the fruits of tradition. Surely it will come, by Gods’ grace, but we are not exempt from the work of evangelizing.

Priest: Rev. Fr. James Bartoloma.

Mass Intention: Marian Clark (RIP) req. by George & Marialena Gunning.

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Taxes: If anyone needs verification of their donations for tax purposes, you will need to request it. Please realize it will take me some time so do not wait until the last minute.

Upcoming Masses:

A) Solemn High Mass for Candlemas, February 2, 2016 at 7PM at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, Philadelphia, PA.

Events: If anyone has pertinent information that would be appropriate for our bulletin, please e-mail it to Fr. McKale @ tlmcommunityofphila@gmail.com.

Mass Intentions: If anyone still has unfulfilled Mass intentions, Fr. McKale can pass them on to a priest that will satisfy the intention by offering a TLM or Divine Liturgy (Byzantine). Please specify if you have a preference. The donation is $10. If you would like a Mass card, please include an extra $5 for the card.

By Peter Kwasniewski

I once shared the following quotation from David Warren’s article “Oh Had I Jubal’s Lyre” on my Facebook page (that is, when I was still using FB — it might happen again someday, but for now I’m enjoying a lengthy “fast” from social media):

Through the centuries, and even to the present day, the faith of the Church has been communicated by music, as much as by words; the very Word, through the Church, embodied in music. … It is an essential function; it was never merely decorative. The Mass in its nature is sung, chanted; and the innumerable musical settings of the Mass are intrinsic to its meaning, to its universality, to the dimensionality: it is not “just words.” … I am convinced that the recovery of the musical traditions, within Holy Church, can do more to evangelize than any quarrelling with the world. For what we must do is not argue, but proclaim; and music in its nature does not argue. It proclaims.

This statement seemed to me as resonantly unarguable as a well-played Prelude and Fugue. To my surprise, however, an argument broke out, in which it soon became evident that those who hold a position like Warren’s were being accused, whether directly or implicitly, of snobbery, judgmental elitism, holier-than-thou aestheticism, pastoral callousness, and other unpleasant things.

It seems to me that Warren is making a triple claim: first, that religious worship, being the sublime act of reaching toward the transcendent God in awestruck homage and receiving the benediction of His grace, is inherently musical — that music is part of the very activity (in a McLuhanite sense of the medium being the message); second, that great music is therefore a moral imperative, not a kind of window-dressing that we can take or leave; third, that “the recovery of musical traditions … can do more to evangelize” modern men than other approaches that have been tried and found wanting. Why is this? Men who are drowning in desacralized materialism, in the close confines of practical atheism, are in desperate need of anti-secularizing shock treatment. They need not worldly reassurance but otherworldly elevation to the Fear of Jacob. In other words, I believe that Warren is talking about the arresting, converting, and evangelizing power of supernal beauty.

Given the knowledge and talent demanded by excellence in the realm of the sacred arts, it is no more surprising that the danger of pride would lurk therein than that the danger of self-indulgence or power trips would lurk among the clergy, who have special temptations in that regard. What a fool’s bargain if we tried to get rid of pride by getting rid of beautiful and difficult things that elicit pride and going rather for something banal and homely, about which nobody could be proud. Even worse, just as a poor man can be possessive about a spoon, so fools would be proud of their banality. The pride would have migrated to the lowest common denominator and we’d be doubly cursed, with moral and artistic unworthiness.

Allow me to propose seven points on which Catholics, looking to the Church’s tradition and learning from the mistakes of the past half-century, should be able to agree.

1. We need to move from today’s comfortably content-free religion of moralistic therapeutic Deism to traditional Catholic faith and worship in their fullness.

2. This move should generally be an incremental one, guided by prudence and characterized by a patient pursuit of excellence — although never by tolerance of that which is, strictly speaking, liturgical abuse (cf. Redemptionis Sacramentum).

3. In Christianity, the interior and exterior dimensions ALWAYS go together: one must have the beautiful liturgy AND the pure heart. It seems surprising that a discussion of what is objectively best, and most in accord with Church teaching and tradition, should turn towards the problem that some people pursue these things in the wrong manner or with the wrong motives. Isn’t this simply a universal and timeless problem of fallen human beings? We can’t settle the question of what music should be used at Mass by looking at people’s inner motivations. Rather, we must do what is right and call people (including ourselves) to continual conversion of heart. Otherwise we risk paralysis through introspection — inaction, lest we be acting imperfectly.

4. After all, a liberal/progressive Catholic (think of the self-celebrating celebrant) can drive people away from Christ and His Church just as much as an obnoxious or elitist traditionalist can do. But on the objective side, it’s not completely equal: anthropocentric and/or ugly liturgy will always deform the faith of the people, whereas liturgy that is theocentric and aesthetically elevated has, in and of itself, an inherent truth and power — regardless of the mixed degrees of sanctity and sinfulness of its ministers. In other words, it is sophistical to argue that, because some traditionalists are imperfect, therefore a traditional manner of worship is imperfect, but it is quite true to argue that a contemporary manner of worship is imperfect and therefore produces moral, intellectual, and spiritual imperfections in our contemporaries. That is why it must be guarded against where it does not exist and, where it does, phased out as soon as possible.

5. Just as the Church should give people the fullness of truth, so she should give them the fullness of beauty. The Church’s claim to possess and to be able to give the fullness of truth is a startling and dangerous one, and yet it is true nonetheless, in spite of how it has gotten mixed up with ambition from time to time in history. Something similar is true for beauty: there is a sense in which the Church is the mother and the home of all that is beautiful, and the fact that this could be corrupted into aestheticism has nothing to do with her evangelical duty to proclaim the beauty of the Lord beautifully.

6. At this point one is likely to hear the barb “anything good can become an idol” (implying: you lovers of tradition are idolaters of some sort), but it seems dangerous — indeed, heretical — to argue that promoting the liturgy and its associated traditions, as received, preserved, loved, and honored by the Church down through the ages, can ever be dangerous in itself. After all, even the Eucharist can be dangerous per accidens, when It is received by someone in a state of mortal sin. There is nothing so good that it cannot be abused, except the divine nature itself. Nevertheless, we would never say that the Eucharist is dangerous without qualification. Nor should we say that excellence in the sacred arts, the aspiration to it and the use of it once acquired, is dangerous without qualification.

7. Jesus preached in parables both to reach people through images and to say something they wouldn’t be able to get (yes, that’s written in all three Synoptic Gospels, and it always makes people uncomfortable). In the Church’s Tradition the Logos is preached in a way that makes it clear that it IS the Logos and not a mirror held up to our own philosophies or lifestyles, a way that makes it possible to accept the Logos as our salvation from outside ourselves or to reject the Logos as an imposition on our disordered freedom.

In its superabundant language of signs that strain their own boundaries and push the human mind to the very edge of rationality, the Latin liturgical heritage is and must be alien in many ways to all of us — whether European or American, African or Asian. Its symbolic and musical languages, its hallowed formulae and sacred gestures, speak a language that has always transcended the quotidian customs of any group of people, and rightly so. For it is thus (and only thus) that we are all drawn into that supranational unity called the Catholic Church, a process that is painful, demanding, and liberating for every earthly creature, stretching and reconfiguring us all in various (perhaps different and complementary) ways.

If the Holy Mass had ever been merely “European,” an expression of this or that aesthetic form common in Europe at any given time, it would have been incapable of forming the Mystical Body of Christ and extending its visible and invisible dimensions through missions to every tribe and tongue and people and nation. In fact, it would have been something equivalent to opera, or cinema, or whatever else happens to be our favorite way of entertaining ourselves. The liturgy is most decidedly not any of these, nor has it ever been. Who “owns” Gregorian chant? For whom is the mystical oblation of the God-Man a matter-of-fact reality? Do Gothic chasubles and zucchetti belong anymore to the Italians, French, and Germans than to Sub-saharan Africa or Kazakhstan? Even in the beginning, the earliest Roman faithful surely trembled in awe as the sacred mysteries were enacted before them. The Jewish converts themselves, no strangers to the awesome worship of the Temple, would have trembled when they heard St. Cyril of Jerusalem’s catechetical homilies before their baptism.

The liturgy is always and everywhere, by the grace of God, a transcendent ritual form, and never just a paltry artifact of history whose richness can be reduced to a particular cultural aesthetic. Because it must immerse everyone in that mystical reality that is the whole Body of Christ worshipping together in spirit and truth, it will always do so by being alien to the daily lives of everyone and every time — precisely in order to infuse into that daily life a heavenly grace and blessing from the Lord’s holy and mystical altar.

Poland’s new foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski has rejected criticism of the European Commission of the government’s ruling PiS party (“Law and Justice”). The previous government followed a certain “left policy concept.”

Berlin (kath.net/KNA): Poland’s new foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski has rejected criticism of the European Commission to the government of the ruling PiS party (“Law and Justice”). “We just want to heal our country of some diseases, so that it can recover again,” the minister said of the controversial approach of his government against the state media in an interview with the “Bild” (Monday).

The previous government pursued a certain “left policy concept” said Waszczykowski. “When the world must automatically move only in the direction of a Marxist model – to a new mix of cultures and races, a world of cyclists and vegetarians who only focus on renewable energies and fight against any form of religion. This has nothing to do with traditional Polish values.

“The PiS party promotes a contrast that moves the majority of Poles: traditions, awareness of history, love of Fatherland, faith in God, in a normal family life between husband and wife. And these days we even prefer ‘Merry Christmas’, and not ‘Happy Holidays’ – because we still celebrate the birth of Jesus,” said the Minister. This was possibly “a shock to our opponents ‘who believed in progress:’ whose 25 years of left and liberal indoctrination could not eliminate these traditional values. And that we have even won the elections.”

Priest: Rev. Fr. Gerald Carey.

Mass Intention: Clement Lenczewski (RIP) req. by George & Marialena Gunning.

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December Finances:

Income $3,148.35.
Expenses $3,475.00: [Music $2,300; Clergy $675; Rent $500].
Deficit $ (326.65).

Flower donations to St. Edmond $185.00 {check written to them + $115 processed through our accounts to St. Edmond}.

Upcoming Masses:

A) Solemn High Mass for Epiphany, January 6, 2016 at 7PM at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, Philadelphia, PA. We hope to see you there.

B) Solemn High Mass for Candlemas, February 2, 2016 at 7PM at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, Philadelphia, PA.

Events: If anyone has pertinent information that would be appropriate for our bulletin, please e-mail it to Fr. McKale @ tlmcommunityofphila@gmail.com.

Mass Intentions: If anyone still has unfulfilled Mass intentions, Fr. McKale can pass them on to a priest that will satisfy the intention by offering a TLM or Divine Liturgy (Byzantine). Please specify if you have a preference. The donation is $10. If you would like a Mass card, please include an extra $5 for the card.

First Saturday, January 2, A.D. 2016 Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Harold B. Mc Kale, Parish Vicar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church, at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, 212 Welsh Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006, (T) 215-947-3500, at 9 a.m., preceded by Confessions at 8:30 a.m.

This TLM will be the Mass of The Immaculate Heart of Mary offered in Reparation to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. WHITE vestments.

The St. Albert The Great Rectory, also known as the Parish Center, is behind the Church, which fronts on Welsh Road.

Mark Matthews