I am a railroad buff and amateur railroad historian. Been one as far back as I can remember. I cut my teeth on election traction, the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee railroad to be exact. However in all of us rail enthusiasts there is a deep rooted love of steam.
I was born in 1953 and by that time steam was pretty much phased out. I do remember, around 1958 or 59 in the observation tower of the Prudential building looking down on the Illinois central switching yards. What did I see was a little steam locomotive working the switch yard.
The bad thing about steam was that travel was limited to water stops. As much as the lines tried to carry extra water or try to scoop it up on the fly in water pits between the rails it never really helped. It was not until the introduction of diesel power that travel time was greatly improved.
In many ways our Catholic church is that steam locomotive. We need that refreshing drink every few miles to keep this old engine rolling to that rail head at the end of the line which is heaven. The problem is the Vatican 2 gang has been draining those towers every few stops ahead. We are now running on basically water vapor hoping and praying we find water at the next stop.
Fortunately there is one heavily fortified water stop ahead. SSPX junction. The Vatican 2 gang has been trying to breech the fortress for years even trying to make underhanded deals to acquire the water. Thankfully they never sold out and are now digging in their heels to stop any hostile take over. Once we get there we can top off the boiler then highball it the rest of the way. There are also new passengers waiting there to board that were thrown off the Vatican stage lines.
The Catholic esquire did a wonderful piece how every Catholic should defend the SSPX and he went on to explain how they brought him back to the true faith. I found his experience with the SSPX was much like mine as well as my experiences with the after effects of the destruction of Vatican II to my personal life.
I was born in 1953 and graduated from St. Isaac Jogues Catholic grad school in 1967, that was the year the Vatican demons were let out of the box to wreak havoc, confusion, and destruction on the Catholic faith. I had the privileged of being taught by real nuns in full black habits who knew the faith backwards and forewords. I remember one religion class Sister Ester was asked, “Sister, can a divorced man become a priest”. Sister Easter’s simple reply was, “There is no such thing as divorce”. She made her point simple with out the side stepping. Something Robert Prevost might try for a change.
Thanks to Father Spring the pastor, I made my first holy communion, first confession, and confirmation under the old rite. With that and my devoted Catholic Polish mother I was on the way to growing up a good Catholic. I was an altar boy, Fr. Spring was forced to put up the stupid Cranmer table but the mass remained essentially in tack and I had to learn Latin. We used to have extra masses in the basement because of the huge crowds. I remember one Sunday when Father was bringing the blessed sacrament to the upstairs tabernacle I walked in front of the priest ringing the bell and seeing people fall to their knees in silence as we passed, something I will never forget. Only place you can find that devotion to the Eucharist today is mainly the TLM.
Then high school 1967 to 1971. The first signs of trouble in the church. The dividing lines were being drawn. This was Notre Dame high school for boys in Niles Illinois under the guidance of the Holy Cross fathers. Most of the priests and religious were graduates from the university in South bend. On one side there were the old school priests. Our algebra teacher Fr. Buenger. He taught class in a full cassock complete with Biretta. One class he chastised one of the guys for calling him sir. “Don’t call me sir, its a disrespect to the priesthood!”. How right he was and how much we have fallen. On the other side was the newly ordained Fr. Fitz who taught religion class decked out in a golf shirt and dockers. One class he was asked, “Father if you didn’t have to read mass on Sunday would you go?” He replied with a simple, “no”.
That began my apostate years. If the priest did not want to go to mass then why should I. All thru high school on Saturday night my fellow classmates and I would go carousing but would stop by a Catholic parish to pick up a parish bulletin to prove to our parents that we went to mass under the mass of anticipation clause (Saturday night). I don’t know if mom ever bought it. Poor women was having her own problems under the new regime at St. Isaacs. My mother made sure she went to confession at least twice a month, did all the first Friday devotions as well as first Saturday. One of the new young priest, a fellow baby boomer, got podium and said, “If your going to confession with just venial sins your wasting the priests time”. At that point she stopped going to confession and began to doubt the promises made thru the devotions. That priest successfully destroyed my mothers Catholic faith. The fruits of Vatican II.
I attended another Catholic school next, Benedictine college in Atchison Kansas where I again never went to mass or the sacraments. Kansas in those days had a 18 year old liquor law for 3.2 beers so my Saturday nights were spent at the local hang out the Wharf drinking beer and shooting pool. Sunday was no problem, no mass so just slept in. However, freshman year, fall of 1971 God threw me a life line. Parents weekend, mom and dad were coming up and I knew I had to go to mass. That Sunday the Abbot got permission from the local bishop to read a Latin mass. It was a solemn high mass, 3 priests, incense, and a full schola chanting with the music of Schuberts mass in C. To this day I get goose bumps thinking about it. First though was if only I could find this I would be back at mass in a heartbeat.
1975 back home in Chicago. Thought I would try the Novus ordo. I found it so boring and empty especially after what I found at Atchison that one fall day in 1971. My dad was an usher so he got me to do the same. Most of the mass we sat in the ushers room talking about the bears upcoming game on Sunday. The mass continued to be a boring torture, select a victim to “bring up the gifts”, everyone shake hands, hell, what is hell? The only good part about that experience was my dad introduced me to the retired cubs catcher Gabby Hardnett
Then in the early 80’s I made the plunge and returned to the TLM. An independent priest in Lake Zurich Illinois, Old Father Quinn, The shrine of St. Pius V. Two lines from his sermons I remember to this day. One was “Here at the shrine we are a pilot light keeping the faith alive until Rome comes to its senses”, and, “you can put all your possessions in the little red wagon and tie it behind the hurse because thats as far as its going with you”. I liked the community but it seems so isolated there.
I had read about the SSPX having a mission in Oak Park Illinois so I decided to try them. They had acquired an old Methodist (I think) church and renamed it Our Lady Immaculate. The feisty little Australian priest was the rector there at that time, Fr. Scott. He was a short man with very powerful sermons, all you can see behind the podium as arm flaying in the air. His Latin also had a bit of Australian accent which was very prominet in “Dominus Vobiscum”. I felt like I was home again. Fr. Scott literally retaught me my Catholic faith. Now I know what people mean when they say they were born again. He was also a great confessor so thru the Society I returned to regular confession at least twice or more a month.
The only problem was the drive. Living in Elgin and driving into the city was no easy task especially as I got older. Congress expressway is a white knuckle drive for sure. I stayed about 5 years then Bishop Doran in Rockford invited the ICKSP into Rockford, that makes up my current Sunday routine. Confession then low mass at 8am. These men are good devout priests but I often worry about their ties with the local bishop. This year for the first time it was no longer low Sunday but a “Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday, with a recitation of the divine mercy devotion after the high mass. I am sure this was Bishop Malloy’s doing. Ascension Thursday while they have a mass Sunday will cover you. This worries me, who know what hoops Leo will have these poor men jump thru.
I have also made side trips to other TLM venues over the years just trying to find crumbs of Catholism, a year or two stint at the diocesan mass at St. Marys in west Chicago. God bless these priests who have learned to read the Latin mass but the rubrics are just not the same as the precise ones of the ICKSP. One priest sang the our Father at a low mass. The do your own thing of the Novus ordo somehow always comes thru. In addition my go to mass for holy days of obligation is Our Lady of the most holy rosary in Elgin under Fr. Brown. A good priest ordained by bishop Thuc line. That does not bother me one bit, just like if Cardinal kissy face excommunicates the SSPX, in fact it will only drive me closer to them. Come July 1 I am going to seriously find an easy to drive to SSPX venue, I think there is one downstate in Illinois, a school I think. My full support is going to the society.
For now lets take on water and Fire up that engine!