Catholic Identity
To people who ask me “Where do you stand in the church? What is your Catholic identity?” I have to honestly answer, “I have no clue”. The only thing I am sure of is I am a Latin Mass Catholic following the Catholic church as it was before Vatican II, beyond that I am just not sure. I guess I can be called a scavenger, nourishing my Catholic faith from what crumbs remain of the Pre Vatican II church. Somethings I think I am sedevacantist. The traditional Catholic faith and customs are definitely there alive and well. They know who they are and for the record I think they are a great group of people. The only problem there for me is that all the post concilliar popes were elected by a conclave. I just can’t get around it nor do I know how to explain that.
I used to think I was recognize and resist, but that position never made sense to me. In Francis Bergoglio we have a man actively engaged in a policy to destroy what is left of the true Catholic faith. He is a heretic, we know that for sure, Church doctrine states the same words Sister Esther used to tell us at St. Isaac Jogues back in the early 60s “The Catholic church is the one true faith outside of which there is no salvation”. Francis likes to think all dogs go to heaven, equality of religion is his bag. However if you want to practice your faith as your parents, grand parents, and great great grand parents did there is no place for you here.
Growing up in the early 60s was a different story. We were Catholic, we knew it, and we were proud it. In grade school we had holidays that the “Prot’s” didn’t, our Feast days. On days such as All Saints day we would get a scratch baseball game going at the local Public high school playground just to make the “Prots” jealous. We went to mass and it had its own special language and rubrics. The Prot’s had none of that. Our Fridays meat was not allowed. We complained but by the same token wore it as a badge of honor in front of our protestant friends and neighbors. That made First class feasts of Mary or Jesus more important to us because we could actually have a burger if those feast days fell on a Friday. Subtle but effective in drilling home the importance of the Savior and his mother. Mary had a free will, she could of simply said no I don’t want to be the mother of our savior. That would of condemned all of us. Something protestants can not grasp when they insult our relationship with Mary. They still think we worship her, however, if we worship our own Mothers than maybe we are guilty. But as much as I deeply love our blessed Mother, a Goddess, no and she would be the first to agree that she is not a godless. In those days we knew who we were. We definitely were special!
Then came the disastrous atrocity they call Vatican II. All of a sudden we were no longer Catholic, we were just another protestant sect. It was like thieves that came in the night. One day a beautiful Latin mass, a tool box full of spiritual devices, holy water, sacramentals, devotions, litany’s, and a holy mass loaded with scriputural details too many to talk about here. We believed in transubstantiation and to enforce that we received the sacred body of our Lord humbly kneeling at the rail with respect as not to touch this sacred gift. Families would come to the rail together, communion was distributed to those of age in a state of grace by the priest only. Those who were too young received a blessing from Father as he went down the line. Beautiful to watch.
Communion in the Novus Ordo looks like a cross between a hot dog vendor at the ball park and and a short sell at the stock exchange. People cue up in lines to get to a layman they call an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. Just a fancy title for usually a middle aged women in a tight clingy dress. The host is more or less tossed into the communicates hand much like a dog dragged thru the garden (Chicago term for everything but Ketchup which is a mortal sin to put on a dog in this city) flung to the waiting customer. Hey if bits fall to the floor and get tread on its no big deal is it? After all its only flat bread. After this is usually the first exodus to the parking lot and home. Side note here. Communion in the hand is an Arian Heresy. The Arians believed that Jesus was not God but just another of God’s creations. To show their belief they took the host in the hand and not devoutly on the tong. Very telling of the basic beliefs of the Novus ordo is it not?
I have not been to a Novus Ordo Missa in over 30 years and have no intention to start now. Reverent or not I still do not consider it a Catholic mass. Its merely a commemoration of the last supper. The Lutherans do that. Click here to see a Doctrinal comparison between the Traditional Latin mass and the Novus Ordo. Confession is another story. Sometimes I just can not make the hour and a half drive to go to a Traditional Latin confession I have 2 or 3 priests who are relatively orthodox and at least follow some rubrics. Just to be safe I usually wind up confessing the same sins over again when I can get to confession in the Latin form. I am like Justin Wilson the Cajun chef, “I am a safety engineer that’s why I wear both a belt and suspenders”. To me the book is not closed until I can hear, “Et ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris, + et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.” I can then finally go to sleep at night knowing the sin is finally fully forgiven. I am not a fan of the Bikini absolution, “In the name of the father and son I absolve you now we’re done”. I guess these Novus Ordo priests run out of time to deliver the long version as they usually spend most of the time playing amateur psychologist. They can not grasp that is not the point of confession. The Trads will tell you to follow the 3 B’s. Be concise Be Thorough and Be gone. Save the counseling for the councilors and the forgiving for the priests.
I read that Jorge Bergoglio was once a bouncer prior to his entrance into the seminary. This skill comes in handy as he now uses it to eject those traditional TLM Catholics from the church who simply want their Catholic faith back. Combine this with the corrupt, money hungry, sexually questionable bishops and you have a recipe for disaster. Its no wonder for every 100 Catholics entering the faith 800 leave. I am not a gambler but those seem like pretty bad odds to me.
I am not one of the 800 and have no intention to be. I lived a traditional Catholic and will die as one. My goal is to be just that little annoying pebble in the shoe post councilliar popes and bishops. Fellow Trads, in the words of Donald Trump, “Fight, Fight, Fight”.