Rage against the machine

Rod Dreher: Where's the rage, Catholic men?

Rod Dreher's recent article in the Dallas Morning News needs to be distributed to every Roman Catholic man in America.

You'll have to register on their website to read it, but never fear. I told them I lived on 123 Main St. in Kabul Afgahnistan, so don't let that roadblock stop you.

Here's a brief excerpt, posted without permission:

Why aren't the men who run the Catholic church raging against the cruelty of priests who prey on kids? Why do so many good priests and Catholic laymen remain as docile as eunuchs despite it all? Do we think we're not going to have to answer to God for our moral cowardice?

Within the church, there is a culture of what C.S. Lewis called "men without chests." Most of us go along to get along, shirking our duties as Christians and men to protect the weak and guard the integrity of the religious community.

Here we are on the fourth Ash Wednesday of the church's long scandal-ridden Lent. As we examine our consciences in Mass today, we ought to be asking ourselves what our sons and daughters, if they remain Catholic, surely will one day: Where were you when the church needed good men to stand up to defend what's right?

As Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friederich Kemp said in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, "A riot is an ugly thing...and I think that it is just about time that we had one!"

Macht den Mund, bitte!

Dialogue.

If I hear one more Bishop, Cardinal or other Catholic talk about the value of dialogue to the Roman Catholic Church, I'm going to need a Confessional.

Let me go out on a limb by adapting a quote from Salvador Dali and say, "Dialogue, c'est la merde." -- at least when following the tack we have so far.

The Church's four-decade long pursuit of dialogue has done nothing but dilute our base.

Now, had the enlightened minds of the recent ecumenical Council taken the Socratic approach to dialogue rather than the Hegelian, we might have gotten somewhere. But alas, they wanted aggiornamento.

And they got it.

A fair question to ask is what we, the Roman Catholic faithful, have received from our partners (our concelebrators?) in this dialogue? Among the fruits for Holy Mother Church have been:

• A new missal, which has caused division -- and more than a simple rubric-based division -- among the faithful. The irregular implementation and abuse of the new liturgy has led to ecclesiological differences within an allegedly "catholic" -- that is, universal -- community. "Unity through diversity" now seems to be the Liturgical Ministries' motto. It's akin to the legendary dormitory graffiti comparing "fighting for peace" to "f**king for virginity". Thirty years later, liturgical reform has become a farce.


• Seminaries that are half empty, at best, in many locations...oh, sorry, I meant to say "half full"...along with female vocations in most western, industrialized nations that are approaching levels of non-existence. Further, most of the female religious are nearly indistinguishable from the devoted women of the laity. Except for the butch haircuts.


• Fabricated music in our "worship spaces" (we used to call them chapels, basilicas, cathedrals, etc.) that is barely worthy of Saturday morning children's programming. The rate at which music is being produced and published by some of the masterminds of liturgical development (sic) is astonishing. Fortunately for these people -- and unfortunately for us -- they have what the software industry calls an installed base. Unfortunately Rome doesn't go after these people like the U. S. Department of Justice went after Microsoft... It reminds me of a bad episode of American Idol, really.


• There are other fruits that could be discussed, but I will leave that to my friends at the Roman Catholic Faithful website.

So, rather than working charitably and sincerely to draw our separated brothers and sisters in Christ back to Rome, or to adopt meaningful reforms to unite ourselves with the Eastern Churches, we have simply created, courtesy of Hegel's dialectic, a new half-Catholic, half-Protestant "faith community" dressed in a Roman toga.

This chimera has done nothing to dispel the misconceptions held by Protestants and Evangelicals about Roman primacy, the Blessed Virgin Mother, saints, the Sacraments, or our general Catholic Weltanschauung. Additionally, it has further distanced us from those to whom we ought to have made any ecumenical overtures, if any needed to be made at all.

But he's got no 401k...

Below is my reply to the Times' inqury for feedback on the subject of a fixed retirement age for Christ's Vicar on Earth.

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In response to your question, "Should Popes have a fixed retirement age?", my answer is no, they should not.

Too often the common perception of government in the world at large, nominally parliamentary and assuredly secular, is applied to the Roman Church. Despite the frustration it causes progressive Roman Catholics and other humanists the world over, the Roman Church is a monarchy whose earthly superior is chosen for life.

A mandatory -- and wholly random -- retirement age for the monarch of any state is inappropriate and contradictory.

Should the House of Lords require Her Majesty to retire next year? I think not.

Thank you for the opportunity to be heard.

Tommy, are you in there?

Below is an open letter to His Holiness, John Paul II, Christ's Vicar on Earth, the Bishop of Rome, sent on this day, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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Most Holy Father,

May the blessings of the Mother of God be with you on this day -- the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary!

I write to you with great Hope, but also with some sadness knowing that you may never read this letter due to the great responsibilities and burdens you bear for both our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ -- and His mystical bride, our Church.

For more than 26 years, in your capacity as Christ's Vicar on Earth, the Bishop of Rome, you have done much to foster greater understanding and bring peace to those sons and daughters of Abraham who have been separated from one another for centuries. You have instructed us to forgive, to love and to pray.

Your Holiness has also often corrected the course of the bark of St. Peter when it has sailed off course, especially with regard to some misunderstandings of the many documents and pronouncements of the Church in recent years.

Holy Father, you have often spoken of us, the faithful, as your "brothers and sisters in Christ" -- and this is true, because when compared to the radiant light of the Blessed Trinity, even the holiest man on earth's soul is as dark as a speck of coal.

It is with great humility that I request of you, John Paul, the Servant of the Servants of God, the holder of the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, to unhesitatingly exercise, by virtue of your lawful office as Christ's Vicar on Earth, your authority to grant every priest -- unequivocally, and without regard to the sentiments of national councils, synods or the local ordinary -- dispensation from any edict, rubric or convention that may prohibit them from celebrating Holy Mass according to the Missal of Pius V, also commonly known in the English-speaking world as the Tridentine Rite.

Holy Father, you have done much to foster unity, both between Roman Catholic laity and clergy, and between Roman Catholics and our separated brethren in Christ.

Now, as Holy Mother Church begins it's third millennium, I would humbly submit it is time for you to foster unity between the Church Militant -- especially those faithful referenced in your apostolic letter of 1988, Ecclesia Dei, with *all* priests of the Latin Rite -- and the Church Triumphant, being those numberless saints, martyrs and souls who have faithfully served God -- and relied on the intercession of the Most Blessed Mother of God -- since the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus on Calvary.

As Christ said to Peter, "...thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Please, Holy Father, grant this legitimate and sincere petition of the faithful. Give us this weapon to defend our immortal souls against the encroachment of man's pride and materialism which are besieging the Church and her faithful from all sides. Do not let the accidents of the Church -- its "reforms" -- preclude the substance of the church -- its faith.

Grant to us, your brothers and sisters in Christ -- all children of God! -- this consolation from Heaven, just as Our Lady of Jasna Gora gave courage to those brave knights at Grunwald through the hymn of the Mother of God.

Niech bedzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus!

-- Michael, Archidioecesis Indianapolitana

Against the excesses of "reform"

I've rarely been hesitant to answer a question frankly, but I generally don't preach to people about this or that. I seem to be making a habit of it lately, however...

Below is my response to someone who sought some advice in their struggle to defend the Faith against the excesses of "reform".

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The first thing to do is to forgive them. As Christ said to Peter when asked how often he should forgive those who offend him, our Lord advised "seventy times seven times". (Matthew 18:22 @ http://www.drbo.org/)

Their insults and ignorance of what's happened to the Church over the years may even require you to exceed that number, but so be it.

If you have the opportunity to attend a traditional Mass, do so as frequently as you can. If you're not able to attend regularly, go whenever you are able. Regardless of the frequency with which you are able to attend Mass, read your Missal. Daily if possible. If you don't have a Missal, make the sacrifice to find one. Another book that might interest you is, "The Heart of the Mass", published by Sarto House. It can be found online at www.aquinasandmore.com and also the SSPX publishing house, www.angeluspress.org.

Whatever people may say to you, and whatever you may do, have the courage to stand fast by Holy Mother Church and the Mass of our fathers!

Around the world, people you have never met are praying for you and for all those who love His Church. Join your voice with theirs! It will certainly be difficult to do so at times, and you may stumble, but you must never give up.

Lastly, do not judge those who speak ill of you.

Work to build yourself up spiritually by prayer and charity. Realize the people who may speak disrespectfully to you have been denied their birthright, too.

Lead them by example, let them see you not only speaking the Truth, but acting upon it. This will change the hearts of the sincere who have been misled or poorly catechized. At that point, the sheep will follow the Shepherd.