My mother was born in Chicago from Polish immigrant grand parents, or “Busha” as she called her grandmother. Like most Poles it was a Catholic family devoted to the Holy Catholic faith under popes Benedict XV and Pius XI. Those were the days whimps were not Catholics. The Eucharistic fast was from midnight from everything including water. Her father (my grandfather) would cover the spigots in the kitchen and the bathroom so none of the family would forget and get a glass of water during the night. In order to be buried in a Catholic cemetery you had to have a priest sign a card stating that you made your yearly Easter duty. As mom grew up she did the first Friday devotions, first Saturday devotions, went to confession twice a month and followed all the rules, she never complained. Her mother during one winter storm in Chicago struggled walking thru the snow to get to confession, then trudged back home only to die of a heart attack. This was how into the Catholic faith her family was.
She also taught me great love and devotion to our Blessed Mother. On her first Mothers day with the birth of my oldest sister in 1942 my grandfather gave her a vase of our Lady with a bouquet of flowers. Mom always made sure Our Lady had fresh flowers. As long as she was alive it was always “Blessed Mother needs new flowers”, or “Our Lady needs a Christmas poinsettia or Blessed Mother need a Easter Lilly”. It wasn’t just a plop in the flowers and be done with it, she would show our Lady her new flowers and then carefully arrange them. When the new flowers were in place she would kneel and say a Hail Mary finishing with, “I hope you like the flowers Blessed Mother”. I have since been keeping up the ritual best I can, in fact she now has a poinsettia. Thanks to my mom I always considered Our Lady part of the family involved in all family events.
I think our Lady appreciated her efforts. A few years before she died she had a hospital stay. My sister was visiting at the time while I went out and get something to eat. My sister said her heart stopped and the medical team at St. Joseph’s hospital had to restart it with the electric paddles. Technically she was dead for a period of time. When she came too she told my sister, “I saw this beautiful blue light and I wanted to go to it the closer I got the more beautiful it was”. I am sure the blue light was our Lady and her Marian Blue color. I honestly think Mary and her son were so touched by her years of devotion they were ready to accept her without hesitation.
In comes Vatican two and the misery and confusion it caused my Mother. She was a trooper, I am sure this was an alien world to her but if the pope said do it, she was brought up to belief it was necessary so she did it. A trip to my sisters college, St Theresa was the first crack in the foundation of the church. 1969, the college chapel the priest was distributing communion, standing, in the hand. Mom told me to ask my religion nun at St Isaacs, Sr. Clarissa about it. Sr. Clarissa could not believe it either telling me the priest must of been sick. Noooooooooo he was very healthy.
Then in 1972 a young priest right out of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein in a sermon one Sunday told the congregation that if your only going to confession with only venial sins your wasting the priests time. Mom no longer went to confession from that point on. Just before the war began, Mom and Dad were married by Fr. Spring back at my mothers church at Devon and Milwaukee, St. Tarsisus (the parish was since merged with a name change by Chicago’s resident heretic Blase Cupich). In the Sunday mom had her first dinner for the entire family soon after she was married was the Sunday that Pearl harbor was bombed. My dad, his brothers and my moms brothers all were glued by the radio listening knowing that soon they would all be called to go to war.
The priest who married my parents back in 1942 was Father Leo Spring. My parents stayed friends with him ever since those early days at St. Tarcisus. He later became pastor of my old parish which at that time it was just being constructed. My dad helped with contacting the potential parishoners by going door to door. My dad once asked him, “Hey Father, how come they never made you a Monsignor yet?” He told dad anything above parish priest is strictly political”. Truer words were never said. All Fr. Spring wanted was a new church, a TRADITIONAL building. The one they were using was intended to be the school gymnasium one a new church was constructed. Cardinal Cody (who had the nickname Lousiana fats) told him no way and shoved a new rectory down his throat instead. These were the years of the infamous project renewal in Chicago. Most think the program was just a way to grift more money from the faithful. They also told him traditional building was out. At that point Fr. Spring gave up and retired down to Arizona. He had enough of the church’s new spring time. Mom had lost a faithful supporter of the traditional church.
My sister dated a Lutheran and they got married. From the start mom was against the idea. Not that he was a horrible man but that he was not Catholic. Mom followed the traditional rules of the pre Vatican 2 church on mixed marriages. Looking at how my sisters family turned out in terms of following the faith the Church was wise in that decission. My brother in law was a good husband and father but being non Catholic does take a toll in the families development as Catholics. Three children, a boy and two girls, the boy is no longer Catholic, one girl is divorced and her daughter wants to be transgender. The other daughter, not sure but I doubt her religious roots are that strong. Once again mom was right despite my sister never forgiving her of her disapproval. Another knife wound in her side. New church took my sisters side. After all she was educated by the new generation of woke liberal clergy. Not Catholic no problem, this will work. As I said before, my Brother in law was not Catholic and never converted. In fact he never went to Lutheran services yet the Catholic priest who did his funeral mass said he is in heaven now looking down on us. Really? I attended the funeral out of respect for my sister and also her husband was a good guy despite not being Catholic. I sat in the corner praying my rosary while the novus ordo priest delivered his bilge water. My great neice, the transgender, delivered one of the readings. Yep at the end they played eagles wings. I hope this counted as pergutory time.
Right after Vatican II mom went along with the buzz seeing some good in it. She liked the mass being in English and wished her Father lived long enough to see the first Polish pope but that was about it. Like a trooper she hung in there. No more confession because the Novus Ordo clergy convinced her it was not necessary. She even confided in me she no longer knew what was a sin and what wasn’t. The last couple years she would go to mass in her wheel chair in the back and just prayed her rosary. She confided in me that even though she made all the first friday devotions, she thought she would not have a priest at her death bed because of the shortage of priests. She did continue to make sure Our Lady got her fresh flowers and always did what she was told, weekly stipends to her church. She did die with a priest present by the way. The priest was actually ordained before Vatican II as well.
Mom died 20 years ago. The church was a decaying rot then but its almost toast today. I am just glad she did not have to witness more of the destruction under Leo and Francis, or my neices divorce and daughters sex change. As a Catholic mom did her duty, I am sure she did not like it and was confused by it but she was no quitter especially when the church is concerned. She did not think it was her place to rock the boat so she did what she did best. Being Catholic. I do think if she was alive today, the Vatican’s attack on our Lady would of been the straw that broke the camels back and mom would be fighting the heretics tooth and nail.