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by Trevor Morrison
Terrible News:
For those of us who regularly attend the Traditional Latin Mass, I have some terrible news. It has recently come to my attention that the designation of Diocesan Latin Mass Parishes is just another card up the sleeve of Bishops who find reverent Catholics to be an inconvenience. They are intentionally trying to isolate Traditional Catholics from the rest of the Catholics in their Diocese by giving them a place to go and stay uninvolved in “normal” parish life. We see this in a special way in the Diocese of Saginaw, where a Novus Ordo priest was removed from his parish for “dividing” his church by offering Holy Mass in a “more traditional” way. Keep in mind the fact that this priest was acting in full accord with the GIRM and documents of Sacrosanctum Concilium, without even the intention of learning how to say Mass in the usus antiquior.
This quote from the Bishop serving as Apostolic Administrator should give you a good idea of the current mentality of the hierarchy regarding Catholics with a traditional leaning. “Bishop Hurley acknowledged “a need to make available on a regular basis to the people of the diocese in a central location a more traditional celebration of the liturgy,” but stated that addressing such a need was not “a matter of reversing the challenges and opportunities made possible by the Second Vatican Council. Traditional practices can enrich our liturgies. It may be useful to provide a central location that embodies traditional practices in a way beyond what many parishes find acceptable and enriching in their prayer life. The challenge is always to find the balance. This is an issue I hope to address without delay.”” So basically the idea is to get us away from the “good” Catholics so we can’t ruin their parishes with our traditional piety and devotion. Especially since that sort of nonsense goes “beyond what many parishes find acceptable”, according to Bishop Hurley at least.
The hierarchs are flat out admitting this is a strategy to suppress even the semi-traditional Catholics and to keep them from influencing the Church. So do we play into their trap and go to a Latin Mass parish, or do we tough out life in a weird post-conciliar nightmare of a parish in order to effect change from the inside? My answer is yes. The solution is simple. Do both. Continue to go to your Latin Mass parish to be worship God with all the dignity an honor as is rightfully due to Him alone, but also start attending a Novus Ordo Mass at another parish every Sunday as well. Become active in the life of the Novus Ordo Parish (teach Catechism classes, help lead parish events, join its dreaded parish council, etc.) and influence the decisions made in that church as much as possible. If enough Catholics do this we can get another parish back on the strait and narrow path that leads to heaven. It requires a hell of a lot of work, but unless we want to keep seeing sacrilegious and blasphemous garbage in most Catholic Churches, innocent children being deprived of the Faith, and innumerable victories for the ancient adversary, we have to do it, we have to do it now.
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